Problems from new technologies
- 1. storage of all sorts of information (text, sound, graphics) in standard digitized formats
- 2. high, volume, relatively inexpensive digital storage media, such as hard disks, CD-ROMs, and DVDs (digital versatile disks, also called digital video disks
- 3. character scanners and image scanners, which simplify converting printed text, photos, and artwork to digitized electronic form
- 4. compression formats such as MP3 and DivX, that make music and movie files small enough to download, copy, and store
- 5. the ease of copying digitized material and the fact that each copy is a “perfect” copy
- 6. the ease of distributing digitized material over computer networks
- 7. the World wide web which makes it easy to find and download material
- 8. Peer-to-peer technology, which permits easy transfer of files by large numbers of strangers over the internet without any centralized system or service.
Examples: photocopiers by making copying of printed material easy, threatened copyright protection. Also complete photocopies of books are bulky, sometimes of lower print quality, awkward to read, and more expensive than a paperback.
The Fair Use Doctrine
- 1. The purpose and nature of the use, including whether it is for commercial purposes or nonprofit educational purposes.
- 2. The nature of the copyrighted work.
- 3. The amount and significance of the portion used
- 4. The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work
Software Piracy
Examples:
- 1. Hackers broke into the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU and set up a hidden cache of copyrighted software.
- 2. Someone broke into a restricted computer system at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and loaded stolen software worth thousands of dollars.
- 3. Pirated software includes word processors, spreadsheet programs, operating systems, utilities, games…
Ethical Arguments about copying
- 1. I cannot afford to buy the product. There are many things we cannot afford, not being able to afford something is not an excuse for taking it.
- 2. The company is a large, wealthy corporation. The size and success of the company do not justify taking from it. Programmers, writers, and performing artists lose income too when copying is common.
- 3. I wouldn’t buy it at the retail price anyway. The company is not really losing a sale. The person is taking something of value, getting “something for nothing” even if the something is less than the retail price. There are times when we get something for nothing. Our neighborhood looks better when our neighbors paint their houses. People do us favors. It can be easy to ignore a crucial distinction: who makes the decision?
- 4. Making a copy for a friend is just an act of generosity. Philosopher Helen Nissenbaum argues that someone who copies software for a friend has a countervailing claim against the programmer’s right to prohibit making the copy: the “freedom to pursue the virtue of generosity” Surely we have a liberty to be generous and we can exercise it by buying a copy of the program for the friend. It is less clear that we have a claim-right to be generous. Is copying the software an act of generosity on our part or an act that compels involuntary generosity from the programmer.
- 5. This violation is insignificant compared to the billions of dollars lost to piracy by dishonest resellers making big profits. Yes large scale commercial piracy is worse. That does not imply that individual copying is ethical. And if the practice is widespread, the losses become significant.
- 6. Everyone does it. You would be foolish not to. The number of people doing something does not determine whether it is right. A large number of people in one peer group could share similar incentives and experience that affect their point of view.Source:
Baase, Sara. A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. Print.
