Notes
Slide Show
Outline
1
Teaching the Ethics
of Information and Information Technology
  • Emily Miller-Francisco
  • Southern Oregon University
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Introduction
  • Goals for this presentation
  • 3 Scenarios
  • 1 Caveat
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Introduction
  • ACRL Information Literacy Standards


  • Standard One: Determine the extent of information needed
  • Standard Two: Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
  • Standard Three: Evaluate information and its sources critically
  • Standard Four: Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
  • Standard Five: Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
  • Standard Six: Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally
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Introduction
  • Goals for the Course


  • Demonstrate an understanding of major issues in information ethics such as free speech, copyright, and privacy.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how technology impacts each of these issues.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of ethical approaches and how they can be utilized to discuss information ethics issues.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the legal context within which debate about information issues takes place.
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Introduction
  • Ethical Frameworks
  • Utilitarian Ethics
  • Duty/Deontological Ethics
  • Virtue Ethics
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • First Amendment:
  • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • Types of censorship:
    • Sexual
    • Religious
    • Political
    • Social
    • Violence
    • Etc.
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • Different levels of protection:
    • Print
    • Broadcast media
    • Common carriers
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • Legal limits to free speech:
    • Defamation
    • Obscenity
    • Fighting Words
    • Gag rules
    • Security Issues
    • Etc.
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • Legal History of Internet Filtering:
    • Communications Decency Act (1996)
      (struck down in 1997)
    • Child Online Protection Act (1998)
      (remanded twice by the Supreme Court)
    • Children’s Internet Protection Act (2000)
      (upheld in 2003)
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Free Speech and Censorship
  • Is there such a thing as free speech?
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Intellectual Property
  • Types of Protection:
  • Copyright:
    Fixed expression
  • Patents:
    Inventions & processes
  • Trademarks:
    Logos, designs, etc. that point to a company
  • Trade secrets, publicity, etc.



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Intellectual Property
  • Copyright History:
  • Printing Press (1400s)
  • Statute of Anne (1710)
  • U.S. Constitution
  • Copyright Acts of 1790, 1909, and 1976
  • Sonny Bono Extension Act (1998)


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Intellectual Property
  • Balancing copyright:
  • Fair Use
    • Purpose/character of the use
    • Nature of the original work
    • Amount borrowed in relation to the whole
    • Effect on market value
  • Public Domain
    • Waited 14 years (+14 years renewable) in 1790
    • Now wait for the life of the author + 70 years

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Intellectual Property
  • Impact of Technology:
    • Boundary confusion
      (e.g. software: patent or copyright?)
    • New kinds of copyright
      (e.g. Tasini v. New York Times)
    • New ability to control
      (e.g. digital rights management and licensing)
    • New participants
      (e.g. Napster)
    • New attempts to respond:
      Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998)

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Intellectual Property
  • Impact of Technology & the Quest for Balance:
    • Open Source movement
      • Copyleft and the GNU Project (Richard Stallman)
      • “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Raymond
      • Linux
    • Other responses to copyright
      • The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig
      • “The Economy of Ideas” by John Perry Barlow
    • Creative Commons at http://creativecommons.org

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Intellectual Property
  • Plagiarism:
    • Ideas versus their Expression
    • Ethics versus law
    • Our little incident(s)

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Privacy
  • Defining:
  • Freedom from intrusion
  • Control of information
    about yourself
  • Freedom from surveillance
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Privacy
  • History:
  • “Right to Privacy” (1890)
    by Warren & Brandeis
  • Watkins v. U.S. (1957):
    government can’t expose private affairs without justification


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Privacy
  • History:
  • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965):
    Right to use contraceptives
  • Justice Douglas: Privacy is a right that can be derived from the “penumbras and emanations” of the Bill of Rights:
    • j free speech
    • l no soldiers in the house
    • m no unreasonable searches & seizures
    • n right against self-incrimination
    • r the rights listed in the Constitution aren’t the only rights
  • Led to other cases like Roe v. Wade (1973) & Lawrence v. Texas (2003)



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Privacy
  • History:
  • Katz v. U.S. (1967):
    • requires government to have
      a warrant to perform wiretapping
    • people can have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” even in public places
  • Now: USA Patriot Act (2001)
    • expands the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and allows wiretapping for domestic crimes as long as the information is relevant to the investigation
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Privacy
  • Also statutory law:
    e.g. Privacy Act (1974):
    Gives a citizen the right to review & amend their government records and to sue for violations of that right
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Privacy
  • Impact of technology:
  • Marketing: Consumer online privacy, datamining, spam, etc.
  • Surveillance issues
    (online and off)
  • Health/Genetic privacy
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Privacy & Security
  • Impact of technology:
  • Hackers and viruses
  • Cyberstalking
  • Cyberterrorism
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Conclusion
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Teaching the Ethics
of Information and Information Technology
  • Emily Miller-Francisco
  • Southern Oregon University