Pirated and Counterfiet Software

Legal and ethical issues in computing are not as straight forward as one expects, these two comprehensive concepts can be divided into many sub-sections such as computer Ethics which is a moral standard used as a guideline for computer users, Code of ethics is a guideline in ICT, intellectual property is the own work that is created by individuals, privacy refers to the rights that individual and companies have and how their data is collected and restricted to outside sources, computer crime is an illegal act that involves computers and finally cyber law which is laws that are related to helping protect the internet and other online communication.

Ethical Computing: Determining the Ethicacy of Copying Music or Software From Another Person or over the Internet

Over the last several years, the issue of IT ethics has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is because of transformations occurring through rapid advancements and the way various applications are utilized. To fully understand what is taking place requires conducting an annotated bibliography on the subject and the impact it is having on these standards. These findings will highlight the overall scope of the challenges and the long term effects they are having on stakeholders.

So, why do some companies within society allow everyone the opportunity to conduct illicit activities, like illegally copying a program? Although products like Nero, One Click and DVD Fab can be used to copy, say, business documents from a computer onto a disc, the software included which can bypass copy protection would not be necessary in these circumstances. Some could argue that these programs were designed for the purpose of conducting potential illegal activities, while others could say that it is really up to the user to decide the differences between right and

Over the last several years, the issue of IT ethics has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is because of transformations occurring through rapid advancements and the way various applications are utilized. To fully understand what is taking place requires conducting an annotated bibliography on the subject and the impact it is having on these standards. These findings will highlight the overall scope of the challenges and the long term effects they are having on stakeholders.

Some of the issues that I would like to explore in this paper, are the intersection of information laws, and how they intersect with the ethical standards, and the actual practice. Since computers and technologies grow extremely fast, the laws are unable to govern new developments in the field. Therefor those that develop these systems and programs have an ethical imperative to, analysis the impact that these systems could have on others. When new technologies and standards are created, one must look at the effect of the technology, and the possible ways that someone could maliciously obtain, or misuse data.

The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics (App A) was first created in 1992 by the Computer Ethics Institute and presented by Dr. Ramon C. Barquins in his paper “In Pursuit of a ‘Ten Commandments’ of Computer Ethics” as a means to create “a set of standards to guide and instruct people in the ethical use of computers.” (1) Computer ethics is about guidelines related to decisions made by computer designers to help lead their actions and assist in the decisions they make. The technological boom of the past three decades has surpassed traditional ethic beliefs; hence Dr. Barquins need to create the ten most important “commandments” for computer applications. As technology advances, initial focus is on learning the technologies and fine

A journey down the fine line of ethical concerns in computing. However there is a constant change in nature and in technology. Therefore, change creates a difficulty in what specific moral codes are to be followed when viewing the region of computer technology, moreover it is a necessity that ethics be considered when making decisions in this specific region. Computing or in other words the use or operation of computers (Bowles, M. D. 2013). Has created a whole new set of ethical concerns, different in its own way. For example, Software Theft were someone is utilizing software however did not go through proper protocol to do so like paying for it; unauthorized use of hardware or the use of computers to commit fraud, hacking, lacking rights to the product, virus used in the act of sabotage. There are more personal issues as well like making false claims on computer merchandise, responsibility for the reliability of output, and the degradation of work.

Ethics is defined as the branch of philosophy that involves organizing, defending and endorsing the concepts of right and wrong behavior. Several factors contribute to the formation of ethical values of an individual including family and peer influences, personal moral values, life experiences, and situational factors. Changing someone’s ethical beliefs is a challenging task as a person has gone through several phases of life and experiences that shape his ethical behavior. However, ethics refers to knowledge of what ought to be done, so it can be taught if a person has the willingness to change. Numerous organizations have successfully developed ethical cultures by providing ethical guidelines to their employees, supporting the fact that ethics can be taught. Advent of information systems and technology has raised substantial ethical issues. The ease to collect, assimilate, and dispense information has given birth to increasing concerns about the appropriate use of customer information, protection of privacy and intellectual property. It is important for professionals to understand their ethical responsibilities towards information systems and follow ethical standards to enforce accountability, safeguard

Software piracy behaviors have been characterized as an instance of antisocial behavior, where it perceived to be relatively harmless since they do not result in direct, grievous physical harm to others, although the economic harm to software companies may be extremely large. Numerous studies have found that the unauthorized copying of software has received increased attention as a form of unethical behavior in recent years and has developed into a widespread problem (Siegfried,2004) .

There is a thin line between right and wrong in the way technology is used today. There are many ethical issues arising by using technology in the business of IT. These issues can be classified as personal issues and organizational level issues. Privacy, private information security, web tracking etc are some of the personal issues and protecting intellectual property like software rights is organisational level issue. These issues tend to create conflicts in the IT industry which are intern responsible for down fall of an IT Organization. The different ways to minimise these issues are to be reviewed and have to utilize them optimally.

Information System Ethics are rules, moral principles and regulations that determine conduct and protocols for creating, disseminating, organizing and using information data to guarantee integrity, security and reliability of that information data (Bourgeois, 2014., para. 3).

Computers, as a relatively new invention, are much more recent than our ethical codes. As a result, society has had to adjust quickly to new and evolving ethical questions created by the growth of computers. A few of these ethical issues will be presented, and the questions surrounding them will be discussed.

Most students are aware that software piracy is a worldwide problem. According to a previous research of 100 students, which consisted of fifty-three males, forty-seven females, and eighty-nine percent under the age of twenty-five, the majority were aware of software piracy and its illegality. In figure 1, eighty-four percent of students were aware that copyright law only permits purchasers to a backup copy, ninety-four percent were aware that distributing pirated software is a felony; eighty-two percent understood

This paper provides an empirical approach related to the challenges for information ethics in the current digital era. Ethics is common all professions and organisations. The methodology and level of maintaining ethics varies between different organisation’s and professions. Corporations follow internal and external ethics. Internal ethics for handling the employees and external ethics for marketing, customer service and handling suppliers. In simple language ethics is moral science. But with bludgeoning competition between product manufacturers, service providers