• Networking increases the computer’s utility

o In addition to Word processing, Excel, …etc, you can share printers,

extra storage, exchange data, e-mail.
• Internet connects millions of computers
o Powerful computational resource
▪ E-mail, surfing www, promoting your company.
o Even more powerful communication medium
• Network utility grows as the number of users squared
o 10 users --> 90 sender-receiver combinations
o 100 users --> 9900 sender-receiver combinations
• As people grows
o The network may suffer overload
o people may act irresponsibly

How Email Works

• Email: Messages embedded in

files transferred between
computers
• Email address: Uniquely
identifies cyberspace mailbox
(2-parts User….@ Domain....)
• Messages broken into packets
• Routers transfer packets from
the sender’s mail server to the
receiver’s mail server
• From the user standpoint, email
seems so simple. You set the email
address of the person to whom you
want to send the email, compose
your message and click 'Send'. All done.
• In reality, sending your message off into the network cloud is a bit like sending
Little Red Riding Hood into the deep dark woods. You never know what might
happen.
• Network Cloud - the set of all mail servers and connectors within a company or
organization.

The Spam Epidemic

• Spam: Unsolicited, bulk email

• Amount of email that is spam has increased
o 8% in 2001
o 40% in 2003
 o 75% in 2007
o 90% in 2009

• Spam is effective (Cheap way for Ads. $500 - $2000)

o A company hires an internet marketing firm to send thousands of
emails
o More than 100 times cheaper than “Junk mail”
o Profitable even if only 1 in 100,000 buys the product

• How firms get email addresses

o Opt-in lists
o Dictionary attacks (made-up email addresses to ISP that bounce
back)

• Spammers seek anonymity

o Change email and IP addresses to disguise sending machine
o Hijack another insecure system as a spam launchpad

• Spam blockers
o Attempt to screen out spam (spam filters) by blocking suspicious
subject lines.
o Have led to more picture-based spam

Ethical Evaluations of Spamming

• Kantian evaluation (receiving ads via cell phone costs money. Using people as
a means for an end ---- profit)
• Act utilitarian evaluation (1 from 100,000 will buy)
• Rule utilitarian evaluation (if millions of people are interested to respond to
spam there will be no way to accommodate them). In practice, tiny users
respond and many others are thinking of dropping their accounts)
• Social contract theory evaluation

(you have the right to free speech doesn’t mean that all will listen – spammers are not
introducing themselves.

• From all these perspectives, it is wrong to send spam

Fighting Spam: Real-Time Blackhole List

• Trend Micro contacts marketers who violate standards for bulk email

–( a DB of IP addresses that make spam. Trend Micro sells this DB to organizations)

–Unsecured mail servers that have been hijacked may be regarded as spammers and
they will be blocked even if they are not spammers)

Ethical Evaluations of Publishing Blacklist

• Social contract theory evaluation

o Senders and receivers do not derive equal benefit from emails.

• Utilitarian evaluation
o Blacklisting will affect innocent users, receivers, and marketing
firms, this will reduce the benefits of internet utility as a whole.

• Kantian evaluation
o Innocent users are used as a means for an end (eliminating spams)

Proposed Solutions to Spam Epidemic

• Require an explicit opt-in of subscribers

• Require labeling of email advertising (all commercial emails must write ADS on
the subject line)
• Add a cost to every email that is sent for ads. A micropayment system is
proposed
• Ban unsolicited email by-laws (laws to prohibit spam as those laws made to
junk faxes)

The emergence of “Spam”

• “Spam” is an unsolicited, bulk instant message.

o Ex: IM that has a link to a porn site.

• People combat spam by accepting messages only from friends or buddies

Need for Socio-Technical Solutions

• New technologies sometimes cause new social situations to emerge

o Calculators feminization of bookkeeping
o Telephones blurred work/home boundaries
 • Spam an example of this phenomenon
o Email messages practically free
o Profits increase with the number of messages sent
o Strong motivation to send more messages
• Internet design allows unfair, one-way communications – You might receive e-
mail But you cant reply

Attributes of the Web

Attributes of the Web

• It is decentralized

–No need for central authority

–BUT it becomes difficult to control the Web

• Every Web object has a unique address

–URL. Every Web page has a unique URL

• It is based on the Internet

–It needs browsers, media for storage, SW for retrieving data, ftp, OSs…etc.

How We Use the Web

• Shopping
• Contributing content (wikis, blogs)

–A wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of
interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language.
Collaborative site – many authors
–Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary.
Personal site (Ex: online journal)

• Promoting business
• Learning
• Exploring our roots
• Entering virtual worlds
 • Paying taxes
• Gambling
• Lots more!

Too Much Control or Too Little?

• Not everyone in the world has Internet access

• Saudi Arabia: centralized control center
• People’s Republic of China: ISPs sign
“self-discipline” agreement
• Germany: Forbids access to neo-Nazi sites
• United States: Repeated efforts to limit access of minors to pornography

– like child pornography

Pornography Is Immoral

• Kant

–Loved person an object of sexual appetite

–Sexual desire focuses on the body, not the complete person
–All sexual gratification outside marriage wrong

• Utilitarianism

–Pornography reduces the dignity of human life

–Pornography increases crimes such as rape
–Pornography reduces sympathy for rape victims
–Pornography is like pollution
–The pornography industry diverts resources from more socially redeeming activities

• Utilitarianism

–Those who produce pornography make money

–Consumers of pornography derive physical pleasure
–Pornography is a harmless outlet for exploring sexual fantasies
Commentary

• Performing utilitarian calculus on pornography is difficult

• How to quantify harms/benefits, such as harm done to people who find
pornography offensive?
• How to deal with contradictory “facts” by “experts?”

–Harmless outlet AGAINST more likely to commit rape

Censorship

Direct Censorship

• Government monopolization

–TV and radio stations

• Prepublication review

–To monitor government secrets (Nuclear weapons)

• Licensing and registration

–To control media with limited bandwidth. (Freqencies)

Self-censorship

• The most common form of censorship

• Group decides for itself not to publish
• Reasons

–Avoid subsequent persecution (CNN in Iraq)

–Maintain good relations with government officials (if the offend government they loose
their official sources of information)

• Rating systems

–Movies, TVs, CDs, video games

–Not the Web (some may have warned– and ask for agreeing to enter a site)

Challenges Posed by the Internet

• Many-to-many communication

–It is easy to close a radio station BUT difficult to do so for a Web page (millions can
post pages)

• Dynamic connections

–Millions of PCs are connected to the internet yearly

• Huge numbers of Web sites

–No way to monitor them all.

• Extends beyond national borders, laws

• Can’t determine the age of users

– an adult Web site can not confirm the age of a user

Ethical Perspectives on Censorship

• Kant opposed censorship

–Enlightenment thinker
–“Have the courage to use your own reason”

• Think for yourself

• Mill opposed censorship

–No one is infallible

–Any opinion (not the majority opinion) may contain a kernel of truth (a part of the
whole truth)

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.” When an individual’s act harms
others the government must intervene.

Freedom of Expression: History

• 18th century

–England and the colonies: No prior restraints on publication

–People could be punished for sedition or libel

• American states adopted bills of rights including freedom of expression

• Freedom of expression in 1st amendment to U.S. Constitution addressed this issue.

Freedom of Expression - Not an Absolute Right

• 1st Amendment covers political and nonpolitical speech

• The right to freedom of expression must be balanced against the public good
• Various restrictions on freedom of expression exist

– prohibition of cigarette advertising on TV

Children and the Web: 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

–Before downloading a page, examine content for objectionable words/phrases

• Child Internet Protection Acts started to arise

Breaking trust on the Internet: Identity Theft

• Identity theft: when a person uses another person’s electronic identity

• More than 1 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2008 due to their
online activities
• Phishing: use of email or Web pages to attempt to deceive people into revealing
personal information

Chat Room Predators

• Chat room: supports real-time discussions among many people connected to the
network
• Instant messaging (IM) and chat rooms (which is similar to IM) replacing telephone for
many people
• Some pedophiles meeting children through chat rooms
• Police countering with “sting” operations
• Policemen enter chat rooms to lure pedophiles.

False Information

• Quality of Web-based information varies widely

–Moon landings
–Holocaust

• Google attempts to reward quality

–Keeps a DB of 8 million web pages.

–Ranking Web pages use a “voting” algorithm
–If many links point to a page, Google search engine ranks that page higher

Is Internet Addiction Real?

• Some liken compulsive computer use to pathological gambling

• Traditional definition of addiction:

–Compulsive use of harmful substance or drug

–Knowledge of its long-term harm (misuse)

• Kimberly Young created test for Internet addiction

– (8 questions on gambling on the Net)

–(5 “yes” ------- means addiction)

• Her test is controversial

Contributing Factors to Computer 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
–Feeling of alienation

3.2 || Intellectual Property

• Digital music storage + Internet ® crisis
• Value of intellectual properties much greater than the value of media
o Creating the first copy is costly
o Duplicates cost almost nothing

• Illegal copying pervasive

 o The Internet allows copies to spread quickly and widely

• In light of information technology, how should we treat intellectual property?

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 (idea) ≠ physical manifestation (paper)

Image below shows the different categories of Intellectual Property.

Image Reference: Intellectual PropertyLinks to an external site.

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 (ex: cutting wood-logs-,
gaining a land)

• As long as…

–no person claims more property than he or she can use

–after someone removes something from the common state, there is plenty left over
Analogy Is Imperfect

• If two people write the same play, both cannot own it ¾ every intellectual
property is one-of-a-kind
• If one person “takes” another’s playing, both have it ¾ copying an intellectual
property is different from stealing a physical object

Benefits of Intellectual Property Protection

• Some people are altruistic; some are not

–People can benefit from having ownership of their ideas, and thus can improve the
quality of life for others

• The allure of wealth can be an incentive for speculative work.

–Giving creators rights to their inventions stimulates creativity

Limits to Intellectual Property Protection

• Society benefits most when inventions in the public domain

• Congress has struck a compromise by giving authors and inventors rights for a
limited time.

–Authors of the U.S. Constitution recognized the benefits to limited intellectual property
protection. (Ex: exclusive rights for novels for a limited period of time)

Protecting Intellectual Property

• Trade secrets
• Trademarks and service marks
• Patents
• Copyrights

Trade Secret
 • Confidential piece of intellectual property that gives the company a
competitive advantage
• Employees are asked to make a confidentiality agreement
• Examples:

–Formulas, customers’ lists, strategic plans, proprietary design

• Never expires
• Not appropriate for all intellectual properties (movies- they should be viewed
and not be kept in secret??)
• Reverse engineering allowed (buying a can of Coca-Cola and trying to figure
out its formula is legal)
• May be compromised when employees leave the firm.

Trademark and Service Mark

• Trademark: Identifies goods

–given by a government to a distinctive product

–Byword, symbol, picture, color, smell, sound

• Servicemark: Identifies services

• The company can establish a “brand name”
• Does not expire
• If a brand name becomes a common noun, the trademark may be lost (Aspirin)
• Companies advertise to protect their trademarks, using adjectives, not verbs,
or nouns.
• Companies also protect trademarks by contacting those who misuse them
(photoshop must not be used as a verb or noun from misusers)

Patent

• A public (not secret) document that provides a detailed description of the

invention
• Provides owner with the exclusive right to the invention
• The owner can prevent others from making, using, or selling the invention for
20 years
• After that, anyone can make use of the idea
• Example: Polaroid vs Kodak- instant photography
Copyright

• Provides owner of an original work five rights

–Reproduction
–Distribution (copies of the work to public)
–Public display (copies of the work in public)
–Public performance
–Production of derivative works

• Copyright-related industries represent 5% of U.S. gross domestic product (>

$500 billion/yr)
• Examples: movie, music, SW, book industry.
• Copyright protection has expanded greatly since 1790

Fair Use Concept

• Sometimes legal to reproduce a copyrighted work without permission

–Citing short excerpts for teaching, research, criticism, commentary, news reporting

• Courts consider four factors

–Purpose and character of the use

• (Educational is permissible, not commercial)

–Nature of work

• Fiction vs nonfiction (facts) and published preferred over non-published

–Amount of work being copied

• Brief excerpts, not the entire work

–Affect on market for work

• The use of out of print is permissible

Digital Rights Management

Digital Recording Technology

• Copying from vinyl records to cassette tapes introduced hiss and distortions (bad
quality)
• Introduction of the compact disc (CD) a boon for the music industry

–Cheaper to produce than vinyl records

–Higher quality
–A higher price (companies charge more)Þ higher profits

• BUT it’s possible to make a perfect copy of a CD

Digital Rights Management

• Actions owners of digital intellectual property take to protect their rights

• Approaches

–Encrypt digital content

–Digital marking so devices can recognize the content as copy-protected

Criticisms of Digital Rights Management

• Any technological “fix” is bound to fail

• DRM undermines fair use (no private copy)
• DRM could reduce competition (never expire)
• Some schemes make anonymous access impossible
• Media Player tracks the contents the user's view

Peer-to-Peer Networks

• Peer-to-peer network
–Transient network
–Connects computers running same networking program
–Computers can access files stored on each other’s hard drives

• How P2P networks facilitate data exchange

–Give each user access to data stored in many other computers

–Support simultaneous file transfers among arbitrary pairs of computers
–Allow users to identify systems with faster file exchange speeds

• Ex: (PCs that have faster transfer rate because they have ADSL speed)

Napster

• The peer-to-peer music exchange network

• Began operation in 1999
• Sued by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America ) for copyright violations
• Courts ruled in favor of RIAA
• Went off-line in July 2001
• Re-emerged in 2003 as a subscription music service

BitTorrent

• Broadband connections: download much faster than upload

• BitTorrent speeds downloading

–Files broken into pieces

–Different pieces downloaded from different computers

• Used for downloading large files

–Computer programs
–Television shows
–Movies
Universities Caught in Middle

• Universities hotbed for file sharing

–High-speed Internet access

–High-capacity file servers

• In 2003 RIAA sued four students (for distributing copyrighted music) for about $100
billion (settled for $50,000)
• Different university responses

–Taking PCs of students

–Banning file-sharing
–Signing agreements with legal file-sharing services like Napster (for fees)

Legal Music Services on the Internet

• Subscription services for legal downloading (like Napster)

• Some based on monthly fee; some free
• Consumers pay for each download
• Apple’s iTunes Music Store leading service (just pay 99 cents per song)

Software Copyright

Protections for Software – Software Copyrights

• Copyright protection began 1964

• What gets copyrighted?

–Expression of idea, not idea itself

• Ex: Implementation of RDBMS NOT the concept of it (App. Not Idea of DB)

–Object program (.exe), not source program

• Because source codes are secrets

• Companies deliver .exe
• Companies treat source code as a trade secret
Violations of Software Copyrights

• Copying a program to give or sell to someone else

• Preloading a program onto the hard disk of a computer being sold
• Distributing a program over the Internet

Safe Software Development

• Reverse engineering okay

• Companies must protect against unconscious copying

–Making the same duplicate of a program because programmers move from firm to
another

• Solution: “clean room” software development strategy

–Team 1 analyzes the competitor’s program and writes specifications.

–Team 2 uses specification to develop software

Open-Source Software: Consequences of Proprietary Software

• Increasingly harsh measures being taken to enforce copyrights (infringe our liberties)

–This act was created in an era with difficulties to make copies. This is not the case
NOW.

• Copyrights are not serving their purpose of promoting progress.

–They make authors wealthy

• It is wrong to allow someone to “own” a piece of intellectual property

–Cooperation is more important than copyright,

Open Source Definition

Licenses have the following characteristics:
 • No restrictions preventing others from selling or giving away software
• Source code included in the distribution
• No restrictions preventing others from modifying source code
• No restrictions regarding how people can use the software. They can exchange or sell.
• The same rights apply to everyone receiving redistributions of the software (copyleft)
• NOTE: Nothing states that Open Source SW must be given FREE.

Beneficial Consequences of Open-Source Software

• Gives everyone opportunity to improve program

• New versions of programs appear more frequently
• Eliminates tension between obeying law and helping others
• Programs belong to entire community
• Shifts focus from manufacturing to service

–Buying Open Source SW with easy installation steps

–Providing great manuals
–Providing support after-sales

Examples of Open-Source Software

• BIND – give DNS for the entire Internet

• Apache – runs half of the Web servers
• Sendmail – moving e-mail via the internet
• Perl, Python, Ruby, TCL/TK, PHP, Zope
• GNU (General Public License) compilers for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and
Ada

Impact of Open-Source Software

• Linux putting pressure on companies selling proprietary versions of Unix

• Linux putting pressure on Microsoft and Apple desktops
• The cost for these OSs goes down

Critique of the Open-Source Software Movement

• Without attracting a critical mass of developers, open-source SW quality can be poor

 • Without an “owner,” incompatible versions may arise

– Independent groups of users make enhancements, so many versions will appear – no

compatibility

• Relatively weak graphical user interface

• The poor mechanism for stimulating innovation

– No companies will spend billions on new programs

The legitimacy of Intellectual Property Protection for Software

• Software licenses typically prevent you from making copies of the software to sell or
give away
• Software licenses are legal agreements
• Here we are not discussing the morality of breaking the law
• We are discussing whether society should give intellectual property protection to
software

–utilitarian analysis

Utilitarian Analysis

• Argument against copying

–Copying software reduces software purchases…

–Leading to less income for software makers…
–Leading to lower production of new software…
–Leading to fewer benefits to society

• Each of these claims can be debated

–Not all who get free copies can afford to buy software
–The open-source movement demonstrates many people are willing to donate their
software-writing skills
–The hardware industry wants to stimulate the software industry
–Difficult to quantify how much society would be harmed if certain software packages
not released
 • It is not a matter of how many SW, but what they can be used for

Summary: Network
Communication and Intellectual
Property

Networking increases the computer’s utility. The Internet connects millions of

computers, network utility grows as the number of users squared. As people grow, the
network may suffer overload and people may act irresponsibly.

Email: Messages embedded in files transferred between computers

Email address: Uniquely identifies cyberspace mailbox

Spam: Unsolicited, bulk email. Spammers seek anonymity and Spam blockers

• Ethical Evaluations of Spamming

o Kantian evaluation
o Act utilitarian evaluation
o Rule utilitarian evaluation
o Social contract theory evaluation

• Proposed Solutions to Spam Epidemic

o Require an explicit opt-in of subscribers
o Require labeling of email advertising (all commercial emails must write
ADS on the subject line)
o Add a cost to every email that is sent for ads. A micropayment system is
proposed
o Ban unsolicited email by-laws (laws to prohibit spam as those laws made
to junk faxes)
“Spim” is an unsolicited, bulk instant message.

• Attributes of the Web

o It is decentralized
o Every Web object has a unique address
o It is based on the Internet

• How We Use the Web

o Shopping
o Contributing content (wikis, blogs)
o Promoting business
o Learning
o Exploring our roots
o Entering virtual worlds
o Paying taxes
o Gambling
o Lots more!

• Direct Censorship
o Government monopolization
o Prepublication review
o Licensing and registration

• Self-censorship
o A most common form of censorship
o Group decides for itself not to publish

• Challenges Posed by the Internet

o Many-to-many communication
o Dynamic connections
o Huge numbers of Web sites
o Extends beyond national borders, laws
o Can’t determine the age of users
• Ethical Perspectives on Censorship
o Kant opposed censorship
o Mill opposed censorship

• Freedom of Expression: History

American states adopted bills of rights including freedom of expression
Freedom of expression in the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution addressed this
issue.
• Children and the Web: Web Filters
Web filter: software that prevents the display of certain Web pages

• Chat Room Predators

o Chat room: supports real-time discussions among many people connected
to the network

• False Information
o Quality of Web-based information varies widely

• Internet Addiction
Some liken compulsive computer use to pathological gambling
• Contributing Factors to Computer Addiction
o Social factors
o Situational factors
o Individual factors

• Intellectual property: any unique product of the human intellect that has commercial
value
o Books, songs, movies
o Paintings, drawings
o Inventions, chemical formulas, computer programs

• Benefits of Intellectual Property Protection

 o Some people are altruistic; some are not
o The allure of wealth can be an incentive for speculative work.

Limits to Intellectual Property Protection

Society benefits most when inventions in the public domain
Congress has struck a compromise by giving authors and inventors rights for a limited
time

Protecting Intellectual Property

Trade secrets
Trademarks and service marks
Patents
Copyrights

Trade Secret
Confidential piece of intellectual property that gives the company a competitive
advantage

Trademark
Trademark: Identifies goods

Service Mark
Servicemark: Identifies services

Patent
A public (not secret) document that provides a detailed description of the invention

• Copyright
o Provides owner of an original work five rights
o Reproduction
 o Distribution (copies of the work to the public)
o Public display (copies of the work in public)
o Public performance
o Production of derivative works

• Fair Use Concept

o Sometimes legal to reproduce a copyrighted work without permission

• Digital Recording Technology

o Copying from vinyl records to cassette tapes introduced hiss and
distortions (bad quality)
o Introduction of the compact disc (CD) a boon for the music industry

• Digital Rights Management

o Actions owners of digital intellectual property take to protect their rights
• Criticisms of Digital Rights Management
o Any technological “fix” is bound to fail
o DRM undermines fair use (no private copy)
o DRM could reduce competition (never expire)
o Some schemes make anonymous access impossible

• Peer-to-Peer Networks
o How P2P networks facilitate data exchange

• Napster
o Peer-to-peer music exchange network

• BitTorrent
o Broadband connections: download much faster than upload

• Universities Caught in Middle

o Universities hotbed for file sharing
 o In 2003 RIAA sued four students (for distributing copyrighted music) for
about $100 billion (settled for $50,000)

• Legal Music Services on the Internet

o Subscription services for legal downloading (like Napster)
o Some based on monthly fee; some free
Consumers pay for each download

• Software Copyrights
o Copyright protection began 1964
o Companies treat source code as a trade secret

• Violations of Software Copyrights

o Copying
o Preloading
o Distributing

• Open Source Definition

o No restrictions preventing others from selling or giving away software
o Source code included in the distribution
o No restrictions preventing others from modifying source code
o No restrictions regarding how people can use the software. They can
exchange or sell.

• Beneficial Consequences of Open-Source Software

o Gives everyone the opportunity to improve program
o New versions of programs appear more frequently
o Eliminates tension between obeying the law and helping others
o Programs belong to the entire community
o Shifts focus from manufacturing to service

• Examples of Open-Source Software

o BIND – give DNS for the entire Internet
o Apache – runs half of the Web servers
 o Sendmail – moving e-mail via the internet
o Perl, Python, Ruby, TCL/TK, PHP, Zope
GNU (General Public License) compilers for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran,
Java, and Ada

• Impact of Open-Source Software

o Linux putting pressure on companies selling proprietary versions of Unix
o Linux putting pressure on Microsoft and Apple desktops
o The cost for these OSs goes down

• The legitimacy of Intellectual Property Protection for Software

o Software licenses typically prevent you from making copies of the
software to sell or give away
o Software licenses are legal agreements
o Here we are not discussing the morality of breaking the law
o We are discussing whether society should give intellectual property
protection to software
utilitarian analysis