January 25, 2015
IFSM 304 5125: Ethics in Information Technology
Paper A-Application of a decision-making framework to an IT-related ethical issue
IT Related Ethical Issue The computer is a great invention that is used in every field including corporate offices and private homes. Computers have made our day to day tasks easier to do and made a great impact in our society that is still evolving and changing each day. Workers are able to do their jobs more efficiently and allow interconnectivity between computer users all around the world through the Internet. Computers has made it very easy for people to copy and steal intellectual property like music, movies and computer software programs like Photoshop and Microsoft office. The
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His roommate offers a free copy for him to use on his laptop but his roommate does not have the authority to do this from Microsoft who makes the software. This is considered stealing because Microsoft is not making a profit.
Step two/Identify the stakeholders
The people who are impacted by this situation are Emanuel, his roommate and Microsoft Corporation. Emanuel’s roommate offered a free copy of Microsoft Word to Emanuel. If Emanuel accepts the offer he benefits greatly because he will be able to complete his assignments efficiently in his dorm room instead of using the college library but Microsoft will not profit and the roommate will have broken the law and potentially receive a penalty or fine for sharing a licensed product. But if Emanuel denies his roommates offer and purchases his own software, Microsoft will profit and no law will be broken. Morally and ethically this is the right decision.
Step three/Consider the Consequences
If Emanuel accepts the offer he benefits greatly because he will be able to complete his assignments efficiently in his dorm room instead of using the college library but Microsoft will not profit and the roommate will have broken the law and potentially receive a penalty or fine for sharing a licensed product. But if Emanuel denies his roommates offer and
Sam Stevens lives in an apartment building owned by his landlord, Mr. Quinn, where he has been working on an invention that plays the sound of a barking dog to scare off potential intruders. A national chain store has contacted Mr. Stevens, and would like to sell his product exclusively. Despite the fact that Mr. Stevens and the store never signed a physical contract, he verbally told a store manager several months ago that he would ship 1,000 units. Now, the chain store has just contacted Mr. Stevens via letter, demanding that he deliver the promised 1,000 units immediately (Southern New Hampshire University, n.d.).
In the late 1990s, most homes and organizations began to receive Internet access. In correlation, many features became available to Web including the fact that files of any type could be downloaded with ease from any source quickly and often for free. The film and music industries felt that the availability of the Internet was posing a large threat to their business model. It was so easy to obtain a song or even an entire movie clip with a click of a mouse. Software and books could be had for “free” as well. It was a common misconception then that these files were available for the taking without needing to pay for it and also without any worry of penalty. In turn, many otherwise “innocent” individuals would obtain this copyrighted
1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer
Contract with Microsoft to place a system-wide license for Great Plains software in exchange for dollars and to hold Microsoft blameless for monopolistic behavior.
Separate all the tables and chairs in the class so that there are 18 individual tables placed into two columns, 9 per column all facing the screen.
A year later the vendor is bought by another company, and the software is removed from the marketplace. The new owner believes this software will provide them with a competitive advantage they want to reserve for themselves. The new vendor terminates all lease agreements and revokes all licenses on their expiration. But Jane still has the floppies she made as backup.
In today’s society there are many decisions made every day that have an effect on not only a single person but can contribute to decisions and actions that many other people make as well. Many decisions have an ethical standpoint that each person must address to make sure that it is a decision they are ready and willing to make. Each decision needs to incorporate the main issues at hand, who it will affect and how, as well as any possible side effects from the decision. Recently, the Phoenix Police Department of Arizona has been faced with many ethical dilemmas that have scared their image. Even though many in the police force have tried
Ethical dilemmas are common issues that every businessman has to face at their working environment. It is not such an easy task for businessman to have an ethical decision making, to choose what the “right” thing to do. In this following factual scenario, John also has to face some ethical dilemmas in his working environment and have difficulty to find appropriate solution. After a brief summary of the facts, I will discuss some ethical dilemmas which John is confronting and some approaches to ethical reasoning.
It has been observed that people copy music Cd’s and Dvd’s to watch it on their personal computer. It is a violation of intellectual property right. Only people with valid license has right to watch legal copies of movies and listen to music. It is a common practice at many places. Right from childhood we have copied
With respect to the influence stakeholders with regards to the decisions said over; one of the commitments Microsoft has or some other business organization is to amplify the benefit and limit the level of dangers in the business for its partners (Velasquez 2011). In this aspect, Microsoft was appeared to have made a terrible showing in those regards. It packaged its items with windows framework at a low value which drove consumers to utilize its program and media players as opposed to spending more cash on these delicate products made by the contenders, which even put this organization in an ethical dilemma. More regrettable still, the awful practices to the opponents, for example, utilizing its effective position to compel a portion of other PC producers and suppliers to sign the contract to help it to push aside competitors, even violated the law. These terrible practices influence the notoriety of Microsoft as well as the development of the future business. Penalties caused by from these actions account for Microsoft’s decrease of profit for shareholders to a certain extent. Business decision making is however not a onetime activity, but rather it is somewhat a constant procedure embraced every once in awhile by the management in wide consultation with the key stakeholders.
Ethics is one of the fundamental building blocks for all organizations. Specifically, information ethics directly relates to Management Information Systems. Information ethics includes the ethical and moral issues arising from the development and use of information technologies. This also includes the creation, collection, duplication, distribution, and processing of information itself with the aid of computer technologies. This paper will focus on the illegal duplication and distribution of software.
Out in the depths of the internet, there is a community of interconnected minds whose work has been vital, nearly the backbone to the spirit of software creation everywhere. Where it not for Open Source programmers such as those who created Debian/Linux, for instance, there would be much less competition for OS’s like Microsoft’s Windows, and perhaps Windows wouldn’t even exist because of it’s command line and Linux-like roots! This group of talented software inventors exists as those who program open source software, whether for the benefit of companies, for other individuals, or simply for themselves. However, these programmers exist as more than just developers; they exist as a
Piracy, in general, has grown rapidly. According to the BSA Global Software Survey, the global rate at which PC software was installed without proper licensing rose from 42 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2013 (BSA The
With less awareness among people that sharing of softwares would benefit the community such as in schools and colleges, students shares the softwares, digital music, videos etc through pirated CD’s, DVD’s etc. With the
Computers is the best innovation, which be connected from various perspectives fields such as mechanical, hardware, apply autonomy and so on. Machine helps individuals and make their life simpler and their movement more beneficial, however there has showed up an issue of the machine compulsion or reliance, particularly among the youngsters. Computers are advantageous gadgets that a considerable lot of us utilize every day. Computers plays vital role of our lives, permitting us to telecommute, stay in contact with each other, for example, funds, stocks and offers, and worldwide news. Individuals can now hunt down practically everything without exception. There is truly an entire universe of information readily available when we log on to the World Wide Web. A few sites give free assets to understudies and experts. Be that as it may remember - machines are not secure. They crash. They get bugs. They can misconstrue words and provide for you an alternate one than the one you needed. Character misrepresentation is not something you need either. Organizations can spam your inbox. Programmers can take your cash. There are trackers and infections that can log each key you write including passwords. Individual data can be spilled into the obscure domain of the web. Furthermore individuals can get to be fixated. In any case, this is all most likely down to the individual utilizing the machine. There is no mixing up that the web and machines have profited the majority of our general