Ethics, Pirated Software and Spyware - Essay Example

Computer Sciences and Information Technology Ethics, Pirated Software, and Spyware What are ethics, and how do ethics apply to business? Ethics can be defined as the principles that govern a groups or an individual’s actions in any given situation. An individual’s moral judgment remains the ethics’ primary concern. In business, decisions and recommendations are made by individuals on behalf of the organization that they represent. These people should be guided by the organization’s culture (Bredeson 65).

The decision to act ethically is a moral choice. Hence, employees should decide on the right course of action in any business engagement. Corporate social responsibility and ethics can bring a lot of benefits to the business. Benefits include attracting new employees, customers, investors and retaining the employees. Lack of ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility, can damage the firm’s reputation and cause a fall in profits and an eventual business close down.What situation would qualify as an exception to the copyright law?

There are several cases that would be eligible for an exception to the law of copyright. One of such situations is when the work is in the public domain. The work in the public domain is not protected by the copyright law and can be used freely by anyone. Another instance is when there is assurance of fair use. This provision allows copyright materials to be used for research and educational purposes (Howe 265). Other occasions may include the use of electronic reserves, libraries and archives, learning management systems like blackboards, and the application of the first scale doctrine.

In the first scale doctrine, owners of legally obtained copyright material can dispose of them without the permission of the owner. However, this does not apply to music and software licenses. In music and software licenses, one has to be authorized so as to carry out a transaction.What is spyware? Would this include key logging while at work?Spyware can be defined as software and applications that take information about the user’s online activities and send them back to their creators. Spyware effects include pop-up ads and browser hijacking.

More serious breaches include identity theft and key logging. Each piece of spyware acts differently depending on the information collected. Some gather information for the purpose of marketing while others have malicious intents. Key logging applications monitor the user’s keystrokes and send the information a malicious recipient of the data. In the workplace, keystrokes may be directed to an administrator, who may just be monitoring the companys operations. Keylogging can happen through the email or other internet servers.

There are three types of keylogging, hardware keyloggers, software hooking keyloggers, and driver key loggers. Key logging at workplaces is also considered as spyware; however, the intentions may not be malicious. Employers can activate Key logging so as to monitor their employees’ activities.Works CitedBredeson, Dean. Applied Business Ethics: A Skills-Based Approach. Manson, OH: south-western Cengage learning. 2012. Print. Howe, Helena. Concepts of Property in Intellectual Property Law. Cambridge, UK: University Printing House. 2013. Print