CIS 381: Social & Ethical Issues of Computing › ~dkoop › cis381-2019sp › lectures › lecture... · 2019-02-15 · CIS 381: Social & Ethical Issues of Computing Intellectual

CIS 381: Social & Ethical Issues of Computing

Intellectual Property Dr. David Koop

D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

Twitter and Political Activism• Instrument of coordination? • Decisive role or catalyst? • M. Gladwell, "Small Change"

- Tweet-based activism is low risk - No personal ties, less commitment - Decision-making is chaotic on the Internet

�2D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell

Freedom of Expression• 1st Amendment covers political and

nonpolitical speech • Right to freedom of expression

must be balanced against the public good

• Cannot falsely shout "fire" in a theater and cause a panic

• Jeremy James: - Convicted for millions of spam

messages by Virginia state law - Overturned because antispam law

was too broad

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[AP Photo, M. J. Quinn]D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

Problems Related to the Internet• Inappropriate Content • Child Pornography • Sexting • Identity Theft • Fake Reviews • Online Predators • False Information • Cyberbullying • Revenge Porn • Internet Addiction


Challenges Posed by the Internet• Many-to-many communications • Dynamic connections • Huge numbers of Web sites • Extends beyond national borders, laws • Hard to distinguish between minors and adults

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[M. J. Quinn]D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

Assignment 3• Link • First chapter of "Against Intellectual Monopoly" by M. Boldrin and

D. K. Levine • Similar format as A1 and A2 • Due and discuss next Tuesday (Feb. 19)


http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~dkoop/cis381-2019sp/assignment3.html

Internet Addiction• Electronic devices co-opt same brain systems indicated in

addiction [R. Davidson] • Variants of Internet addiction

- Excessive gaming - Sexual preoccupations - E-mail/text messaging

• Characteristics of Internet addiction - Excessive use - Withdrawal - Tolerance - Negative repercussions

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Internet Addiction• American Psychiatric Association:

insufficient data to list as a mental disorder

• Addiction to gaming is listed though unknown if it is unique

• South Korea - Average high school student

spends 23 hours/week gaming

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[Kim-Jae Hwan]D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

Contributing Factors to Addiction• Social factors

- Peer groups • Situational factors

- Stress - Lack of social support and intimacy - Limited opportunities for productive activity

• Individual factors - Tendency to pursue activities to excess - Lack of achievement - Fear of failure

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Ethical Evaluation of Internet Addiction• Enlightenment view

- Individuals can and should govern their lives - People are responsible for their choices

• Jeffrey Reiman’s view - Addict’s behavior makes sense if addict has no hope for a better

future - Society bears responsibility for putting people in hopeless

situations

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What can we do about problems related to the Internet?


Legislation• Sexting: Change penalties for minors • Identity Theft: Identity Theft and Assumption Act (1998) +

enhancement (2004) • Cyberbullying: proposed Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act • Revenge Porn: criminalization (41 states, not Massachusetts but

Gov. Baker recently re-filed a bill) • Internet Addiction:

- South Korea prohibits children under 16 from playing online games between 12am and 6am

- China requires game providers to limit points possible as they play more than three hours


Censorship• Suppress of regulate public access to material considered offensive

or harmful • Government and, in some places, religious institutions often play a

role in determining which materials are harmful • Types:

- Direct censorship • Government monopolization • Prepublication review • Licensing and registration

- Self-censorship


Self-censorship• Most common form of censorship • Group decides for itself not to publish • Reasons

- Avoid subsequent persecution - Maintain good relations with government officials (sources of

information) • Ratings systems created to advise potential audience

- Movies, TVs, CDs, video games - Web:

• Birthday • "I agree" button

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Challenges Posed by the Internet• Many-to-many communications • Dynamic connections • Huge numbers of Web sites • Extends beyond national borders, laws • Hard to distinguish between minors and adults

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Governmental Filtering and Surveillance• North Korea: Internet virtually inaccessible • Saudi Arabia: centralized control center • China

- Blocks Internet access at times of social unrest - Has “one of most sophisticated filtering systems in the world”

• Germany: Forbids access to neo-Nazi sites • United States: Repeated efforts to limit access of minors to

pornography

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Ethical Perspectives on Censorship• Kant opposed censorship

- Enlightenment thinker - “Have courage to use your own reason”

• Mill opposed censorship - No one is infallible - Any opinion may contain a kernel of truth - Truth revealed in class of ideas - Ideas resulting from discourse are more influential

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Mill’s Principle of Harm

“The only ground on which intervention is justified is to prevent harm to others; the individual’s own good is not a sufficient

condition.”


Web Filters• Web filter: Software that prevents display of certain Web pages

- May be installed on an individual PC - ISP may provide service for customers

• Methodologies - Maintain “black list” of objectionable sites - Examine content for objectionable words/phrases

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Child Internet Protection Act• Libraries receiving federal networking funds must filter pages

containing obscenity or child pornography • U.S. Supreme Court ruled CIPA did not violate 1st Amendment

guarantees (6-3 decision in June 2003) • Ethical Evaluations

- Kantian evaluation: CIPA is wrong - Act utilitarian evaluation: depends on how benefits and harms are

weighed - Social contract theory: freedom of conscience should be given

precedence

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Sting Operations• To catch online predators, police pose as children:

- Sometimes result in dozens of arrests - Allegation: Extreme methods to maintain arrest rates

• Ethical Evaluations: - Utilitarianism: one person harmed, public safety increases,

reduced trust in police, affect perception of honesty - Kantianism: Lying is wrong - Social contract theory: Both sides are misrepresenting themselves

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Intellectual Property


Changing Intellectual Property Landscape• We benefit from access to high-

quality television shows, music, movies, computer programs

• All digital, easy to copy • Value of intellectual properties much

greater than cost of media • Illegal copying pervasive • Internet allows copies to spread

quickly and widely • Given today's technology, how

should we treat intellectual property?

�23

[Electronic Frontier Foundation]D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

What Is Intellectual Property?• Intellectual property: any unique product of the human intellect that

has commercial value - Books, songs, movies - Paintings, drawings - Inventions, chemical formulas, computer programs

• Intellectual property ≠ physical manifestation: the piece of paper a formula is printed on is not the intellectual property

• Does right to own property extend to intellectual property?

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Property Rights• Locke: The Second Treatise of

Government • People have a right…

- to property in their own person - to their own labor - to things which they remove from

Nature through their labor • As long as…

- nobody claims more property than they can use

- after someone removes something from common state, there is plenty left over

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Making Belt Buckles vs. Writing Plays• Steps in making a belt buckle

- Mine ore - Smelt it down - Cast it

• Steps in writing a play - “Mine” words from English language - “Smelt” them into prose - “Cast” them into a complete play

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Analogy Is Imperfect• If Ben Jonson and William

Shakespeare simultaneously write down Hamlet, who owns it?

• If Ben “steals” the play from Will, both have it (unlike buckle)

• These paradoxes weaken the argument for a natural right to intellectual property

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[Alamy]D. Koop, CIS 381, Spring 2019

Intellectual Property Protection• Benefits:

- Giving creators rights to their inventions stimulates creativity - Allure of wealth can be an incentive for speculative work - Some people are not altruistic

• Limits: - Some people are altruistic - Society benefits most when inventions in public domain: everyone

can have better mousetraps • Authors of U.S. Constitution recognized benefits to limited

intellectual property protection • Congress has struck compromise by giving authors and inventors

rights for a limited time

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What is the right amount of time for an inventor or author to have exclusive rights?


Intellectual Property Protections• Trade Secrets • Trademarks (and Service Marks) • Patents • Copyrights


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CIS 381: Social & Ethical Issues of Computing › ~dkoop › cis381-2019sp › lectures › lecture... · 2019-02-15 · CIS 381: Social & Ethical Issues of Computing Intellectual