Computer Ethics

by Robert Plotkin

Written works, music, videos, and other content on the Internet are easily accessible to the general public, but is it considered ethically permissible to access, copy, and redistribute them? Is it right to look at someone else's documents on a home or school computer just because they are not protected by password? Are there ethical problems with using a false identity in an Internet chat room, or behaving in a way that one would not consider acting in the "real" world? What about using a photograph from the Internet in a research paper without giving credit to the photographer, even if using that photo constitutes fair use and does not violate the law? Computer Ethics explores these questions and more, enabling students to differentiate between what is legally permissible and what is ethical in the context of computers and the Internet. Chapters include:

-Privacy: Does It Exist Online?

-Copying: Does Ease of Copying Make It Right?

-Virtual Worlds: Living Inside Your Computer.

188 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Robert Plotkin is the author of The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business from Stanford University Press.

Robert Plotkin is a patent attorney at the law firm of Robert Plotkin, P.C., a Lecturer at the Boston University School of Law, and an expert on invention automation and patent law."