Ethics and Legal Issues in Computing

Dannelly's CSCI 101 class

Ethics - SPAM Costs

40% of email is SPAM consumes lots of disk space!!! bandwidth?

CAN SPAM Act of 2003The bill permits e-mail marketers to send unsolicited commercial e-mail as long as it contains all of the following:

an opt-out mechanism; a valid subject line and header (routing) information; the legitimate physical address of the mailer; and a label if the content is adult

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_Spam_Act_of_2003

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Ethics Issues

Ethics - Web Censorship The US government does not censor content

several anti-web-porn laws have been struck down as unconstitutional

CIPA requires libraries to install filter software

Many Foreign governments do censor web content

Are ISPs responsible for what their users' post? maybe

Ethics Issues

Ethics - Online Privacy

Q: Does shopping online at home give you more or less privacy? more privacy - your neighbors will not see you there

less privacy - online shopping gives the company much more info about you (exactly what you looked at, how long you looked, other places that you shop, etc…)

Beware of those cookies!

Online Privacy Example

DoubleClick.com gathers cookie data from advertising banners placed on many web sites

DC can cross-reference data to build profiles of individual users' surfing habits

DC owns Abacus Inc., a consumer database company containing the names, addresses, phone numbers, etc... of 90% of American Households

Ethics Issues

Legal Issue: Workplace Privacy

Question: How much privacy are you entitled to at work? Is your company allowed to read your email? …

Answer: They can do almost anything. It is their office, their phone, their computer, etc.

Legal Issues

Privacy v. Government

Katz v US police must have a warrant to eavesdrop

and record a phone conversation

USA PATRIOT Act warrants to monitor phones and email are VERY

easy to get

Legal Issues

Katz v United States without a warrant, police placed a bug on the

outside of a public phone booth used by Katz to make illegal bets

In 1967, the US Supreme Court ruled Katz's rights were violated. Katz reasonably thought his conversation was

private, hence the recording was an illegal search and seizure

the 4th amendment protects people, not places the 4th amendment governs seizure of tangible items,

as well as recording of oral statements

Legal Issues

Patriot Act allows officials to track emails without showing

probable cause allows roving surveillance for intelligence (not

just crime investigation) tapped device does not have to be owned by the

suspect search warrants no longer have to be served warrants for records do not require probable

cause …

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to

Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT)

Legal Issues

Legal Issues - Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is any unique product of the human intellect that has commercial value.

For example: books, songs, movies, software

No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 illegal to reproduce or distribute (even without profit)

more than $1,000 worth of copyrighted material in 6 months.

Legal Issues

Opinion Homework

Dannelly Software Inc. created software to allow researchers to share data files over the internet.

Should Dannelly Software Inc be held responsible if you use its software to illegally share files over the internet?

Sony v Universal Studios In 1976, Universal and Disney sued Sony

stating that the Betamax enabled people to copy copyrighted material.

In 1983, the supreme court ruled 5-4 that the private, noncommercial use of copyrighted material is "fair use".

Also, the Betamax machine could copy non-copyrighted as well as copyrighted material.

Legal Issues

MGM v Grokster MGM et.al. sued because 90% of

Grokster content was copyrighted.

Lower court judge quickly ruled in favor of Grokster. citing Sony v Universal, Grokster has "substantial noninfringing uses" August 2004

Supreme Court overruled in favor of MGM et.al. "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting

its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."

June 2005, vote count was 9-0

Legal Issues

Digital Millennium Copyright Act illegal to possess the technology to

circumvent copyright protection technology eg. figuring out how to decode a DVD that you own is

illegal

making any copy of a digital copyrighted work is prohibited eg. making a backup copy of a software application is

illegal (unless the maker says okay).

Legal Issues

Computer Crime

Most corporate computer crime is done by employees

58% unauthorized employees 24% authorized employees 13% outside hacker 5% other

Legal Issues

Computer Crime

Stealing Corporate Data

Destroying Corporate Data

Denial of Service Attackyou can shut down cnn.com by quickly hitting

it with thousands of bogus requests

Making and Spreading Viruses

Legal Issues

Harmful Software

Virus usually destroys files copies itself ex - a MSWord macro sent via email

Worm objective: destroy the network, not your PC copies itself via network connections

Viruses

Harmful Software Trojan Horse

arrives inside something else replicates itself the really bad ones wait for a particular date

Spyware objective: steal information

personal information (bank account info, …) passwords monitor and transmit web activity

Viruses

Virus Protection

Anti-Virus Software looks for known viruses and common virus

formats

Firewalls prohibits unauthorized external access good for cable modem users who leave their

machine on

Be Careful of Cookies

Viruses

Next Classes…

Next Week:

Storing Information media : flash drives, CDs, … image and movie files the defrag program etc...

Two Weeks from Today:

Midterm Exam