Ethics in
Computing
The Ten
Commandments of Computer Ethics
In my opinion, ethics are rules outlining things that people
should already know; what is right and what is wrong, rules that should not
have to be recorded.
Perhaps the oldest recorded ethics are in the form of
biblical principles, known as the Ten Commandments, but they only go so far
with various rules applying only to the religious among us. However, the
general ethics, such as “thou shalt not
kill” should be common knowledge, and should not need to be taught.
However, it would be dangerous to assume that everybody
understands right from wrong, and the same goes for actions in computing. Available
on the internet are principles, basic principles in the form of the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics. [1]
The Ten Commandments
of Computer Ethics were draw up by the Computer Ethics Institute.[2]
You can imagine by the title of the principles that they are not too dissimilar
from the way the biblical principles are presented.
- Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Harm Other People
- Thou Shalt Not Interfere With Other People’s Computer Work
- Thou Shalt Not Snoop Around In Other People’s Computer Files
- Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Steal
- Thou Shalt Not Use A Computer To Bear False Witness
- Thou Shalt Not Copy Or Use Proprietary Software For Which You Have Not Paid
- Thou Shalt Not Use Other People’s Computer Resources Without Authorisation Or Proper Compensation
- Thou Shalt Not Appropriate Other People’s Intellectual Output
- Thou Shalt Think About The Social Consequences Of The Program You Are Writing Or The System You Are Designing
- Thou Shalt Always Use A Computer In Ways That Insure Consideration And Respect For Your Fellow Humans
You read through these rules, and instantly you may think
that they are all a given, and you would not have had to have read through them
to learn anything new. However, whether or not a person knows from right and
wrong, there are still many counts of wrong-doings ranging from bullying on
social networks to plagiarism.
The 3 most prominent examples of unethical use of computers
are, in my opinion, intrusion, piracy and bullying.
Intrusion
Hacking another person or business’ personal computers,
servers or networks is the computing equivalent of breaking into a place of
residence or the building that belongs to the business being hacked. The
average person would not do the latter, so why do it on a computer?
For more than enough people, the internet has different
rules from the real world, and perhaps people feel that they can get away with
more illegal activities than in the outside world. As aforementioned, a person
may not actively invade people’s homes, but they would have no problem invading
a personal computer on a regular basis for their own personal gain.
Hacking appears to have become a hobby for many, with a
study showing that a third of all world-wide malicious attacks originated in
America alone, according to Symantec.[3]
Beyond general intrusion is the DDoS attack. DDoS is short
for Distributed Denial of Service, and these attacks are designed to compromise
systems with infected files which enable the hacker to maliciously control as
many sources as they want to flood the target with an unmanageable amount of
incoming traffic to overwhelm their system(s).
Recent examples of DDoS attacks on major companies were the
attacks on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. The hackers targeted these
giants to disrupt their service during arguably the most busy time of the year
as far as gaming goes; Christmas. In reply to the attacks, Xbox boss Phil
Spencer spoke to his rivals at Playstation and Nintendo in an effort to counter
any future attacks made on their systems.[4]
Hacking can however be used for a good cause; whether or not
it’s ethical is up for debate. In recent news, Anonymous, a group of
‘hacktivists’, have taken to the internet to expose more than 1,500 ISIS
supporters via social media.[5]
“We will hunt you down
and expose you”, read a statement from Anonymous.
They make it clear that they are “Muslims, Christians, Jews. We are hackers, crackers, hacktivists,
phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy from next door”.
Generally speaking, they could be anybody. Reflecting on the
number of hackers based in America, it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that the
majority of Anonymous members are American nationals, but undoubtedly there
will be a great number based across Britain, Europe and the rest of the world.
Their statement indirectly suggests that there is nowhere to hide for ISIS, or
for anybody willing to commit crimes against humanity.
Groups like Anonymous are commonly known as vigilantes, but
taking their recent actions into account, you can’t help but argue that they
are ultimately undertaking ethical tasks by way of unethical actions. The right
outweighs the wrong.
“You will be treated
like a virus, and we are the cure.”
Piracy
To be in the industries of music, videogames, film and
general media brings with it the war on piracy. One of the biggest areas to be
hit since the introduction of digital piracy is the music industry.
Lars Ulrich, drummer of Metallica, is not only famous for
his role in the colossal metal band, but also for taking a stand against piracy
when it first became a notable issue.[6]
Napster was the flagship service for peer-to-peer file
sharing, and was mainly founded on the sharing of MP3 audio files, which
eventually got them into many legal disputes over copyright infringement, one
of which was fronted by Lars Ulrich.
The general public did not agree with Lars Ulrich when he
spoke out against Napster when he disagreed that P2P would have a role in
evolving the music industry for the greater good. Sure, unknown artists can be
found a lot easier thanks to video and music file shares on the internet,
however, piracy in the music industry has no doubt caused revenue to plummet,
thus causing more damage than effective evolution.
The above chart shows how revenue from music sales has taken
a significant hit since the birth of Napster back in 1999, which had a knock-on
effect when various other file sharing services came to be, such as Limewire.
Aside from filing law suits against whoever can be caught,
little can be done against digital piracy. The internet cannot be tamed. If a
website or service is blocked, there will be a guaranteed proxy which people
can use as a gateway to get back onto those sites or services.
However, the war on piracy is a little different for
videogames developers. If they choose to make the effort, there are techniques
that the developers can use to punish pirates for illegally obtaining their
game. One of the more prominent examples being the censor method used by Electronic
Arts on The Sims 4.
EA took their pixilation technology to the next level, and
instead of pixilating things like the characters’ use of the bathroom, they
stepped it up by progressively pixelating everything but the user interface if
a bootleg copy of the game was detected.[7]
In regards to software such as Windows applications, or even
the operating system itself, such as Windows 8, they have registration
protection for most products. If a user hasn't registered a product key before
the end of a set period of time, then the application will lock the user out,
and they will not be able to use that program again until a product key has
been entered.
However, prevention methods such as those only separate the
casuals from the hard-core pirates. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and simple
methods such as amending the system clock can stop a program from ever reaching
the registration deadlines. It just depends on how much a user wants that
program without having to pay for it, because some workarounds require effort.
Bullying
Online social networks have been one of the most
ground-breaking creations in the history of computing, and though they are not
the oldest social network, Facebook are the most notable pioneers.
Twitter is another social network that has risen above many
others. It brings with it a lot of positives, which arguably makes it better
than Facebook for people who want to keep in touch with the news from around
the world, or news from their favourite celebrities.
However, with the positives come the negatives, and one of
the biggest negatives of social networking as direct as Twitter is the bullying
and general abuse. One of the more prominent examples of this is the attacks on
celebrities or sports personalities after certain events have taken place.
If a music artist gives a bad performance, then people will
feel the need to directly message their Twitter account to berate them, and
take criticism to a personal level. It’s the same with sports personalities. If
a football player has a bad game, or says something in a post-match interview
that isn't to the fans’ liking, then certain fans will send abusive messages to
that player, which can sometimes devolve even further into racism.
Conclusion
With so many areas in computing, and a plethora of users
being involved in these areas, there are bound to be millions of people wanting
to exploit something for their own good. It’s impossible to enforce ethics in
computing, because as we have seen of late from Internet Service Providers in
the UK, such as Virgin Media and Sky, blocks on certain websites such as the
aforementioned Pirate Bay can be made redundant by proxy websites.
The internet is the wild west of the world. You can carry on
with illegal activities and not necessarily get caught. However there are some
who will be caught and made examples of for software piracy, hacking or
bullying, but that still doesn't seem to stop unethical behavior in computing.
[1]
Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics - http://computerethicsinstitute.org/publications/tencommandments.html
[2]
Computer Ethics Institute - http://computerethicsinstitute.org/aboutcei/whatiscei.html
[3]
Hacking Reports - http://www.neoseeker.com/news/6608-hacking-the-new-american-hobby/
[7]
Anti-piracy techniques - http://www.dorkly.com/post/70736/8-surprising-ways-video-games-are-fighting-piracy
