Computing and Ethics

Personal Memo

Name-Akshit Awasthi

Class-9th

Section-D

Roll No-5

Topic-Computing and Ethics

School-City Montessori School, L.D.A

Index

S.No. Topic Page No.

1. Acknowledgement

2. Introduction

3. Computer Ethics

4. Software Ethics

5. Major Ethical Issues

6. Individual's Right to Privacy

7. Intellectual Property Rights

8. Accuracy of Information

9. Hacking and Piracy

10. Software Piracy

11. Getting Protected

12. Protective Measures

13. Securing Data

14. Preventive Measures &

Troubleshooting

15. Troubleshooting

16. Computer Crime

17. Reasons for Computer Crimes

18. Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

Acknowledgement

I feel privileged in expressing my most sincere regards and utmost gratitude to my esteemed teacher, guide Roy Sir, a scholar of the highest order, and professional par excellence who inspired me constantly in my work and completion of this project and without whose guidance this project would have not seen the light of the day.

I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Vineeta Kamran madam, Principal, City Montessori School (C.M.S), Kanpur Road, Lucknow, India for extremely valuable guidance and unflinching support extended to me during difficult part of my dissertation.

I also take this opportunity to thank all my family members, who always helped me in fulfilling all the requirements I had for this task

I also express my sincere gratitude to all my friends who co-operated outstandingly in collecting all the data required for this project, which could have not been completed without their contributions.

I am sincerely grateful to Google for all the matter of Computing Ethics.

Date-12th May, 2006

Akshit

Introduction

Ethics play an important role in our life-styles and ways of doing things. In general we may define ethics as the field of study that is concerned with questions of value. i.e. making judgments about "good" or "Bad" behavior in any given situation. The standards, values, morals, principles, etc. make ethics that guide one's decisions or actions on- generally when there is no clear "right" or "wrong" answer. For example, how would you decide whether a person should live or die when he/she is suffering from an un-curable disease?

Ethics guide one's behavior in every field of life, whether business, education, social behavior or using computers. This project is dedicated to various issues related to computers, computing & ethics. But before discussing these issues, let us know first about what computer ethics mean.

Computer Ethics

Computers are special technology and they raise some special ethical issues. In this essay I will discuss what makes computers different from other technology and how this difference makes a difference in ethical considerations. In particular, I want to characterize computer ethics and show why this emerging field is both intellectually interesting and enormously important.

On my view, computer ethics is the analysis of the nature and social impact of computer technology and the corresponding formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology. I use the phrase "computer technology" because I take the subject matter of the field broadly to include computers and associated technology. For instance, I include concerns about software as well as hardware and concerns about networks connecting computers as well as computers themselves.

Software Ethics

Software ethics is the science of morals in computer/software usage. It is honorable to follow and live by software ethics which are a set of moral rules/principles.

o Unauthorized, copying of software is illegal and a violation of software ethics. The copyright law protects software authors and publishers, just as investors are protected by the patent law.

o Unauthorized copying of software by individuals can harm the entire academic community. If it happens in a campus, the institute may have to tackle legal liability. The institution will face grievances while negotiating dealings that would make software easily available for a cheaper price to members of the academic community.

o Unauthorized copying and use of software, violating software ethics deprive publishers and developers of a fair return for their work. In addition, increased prices, reduction in the level of future support and enhancements can inhibit the development of new software products.

Software can be classified into 4 broad categories in terms of copyright. The restrictions and limitations regarding each classification are different.

1. Commercial Software

2. Shareware software

3. Freeware

4. Public domain

Major Ethical Issues

These days, we can easily say that our society is information society and our era is information era. As we all know that information is the means to acquire knowledge. In other words, we can say that information forms the intellectual capital for a person or body.

However, there are many ethical issues involved with the usage and availability of information. These major ethical issues are:

Ð'* Individual's Right

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