Computers Project Management and Professional Communication - Case Study Example

Computers Prоjесt Маnаgеmеnt and the Рrоfеssiоnаl Communication Name Institution Executive summary; This paper looks at the case of copyright infringement. The paper reports on the key stakeholders associated with this case. The paper also looks at the points of view of the particular stakeholders and how they differ from each other. This paper identifies three codes of ethics applicable in the case of copyright infringement, Australian Computer Society (ACS), British Computer Society (BCS), and Computer Society of India (CSI. There is the analysis of the evaluation of these codes of ethics to the current situation and the differences and similarities of the particular codes of ethics. Table of Contents Executive summary; 2 Table of Contents 3 Report introduction; 4 1) Stakeholder Ethics 4 a) Key stakeholders relevant to this case study and the rationale; 4 b) The situation (and reasoning) from their perspective; 5 c) The major areas of conflict (if any) between these perspectives 7 d) Relevant ethical view of each stakeholder 7 e) Reflection of the circumstances described in the case study 8 2) International Codes of Ethics 8 Report conclusion; 11 Reference list 12 Report introduction; Computers and technological advancement are associated with risks such as unauthorised access to information. In the technology sector, the internet usage and digitization has prompted the government agencies to track companies and the individuals because of the suspected violation of exclusive rights from download of online content. The value of the content owners of managing such access is definite. It is also clear how the national governments apply ethics when enforcing commercial rights globally and the followed methods. This paper seeks to explore the ethics of infringement of the online content. There is the identification of the key stakeholders in reference to the case study and the situation from their perspective, their ethical views. There is the explanation of personal ethical view as per the case study situation. This paper contains the research of the international codes of ethics in the information-technology industry bodies, such as Australian Computer Society (ACS), British Computer Society (BCS), and Computer Society of India (CSI) among others. There is also the identification of the major differences and similarities of the ethical code of conduct. 1) Stakeholder Ethics a) Key stakeholders relevant to this case study and the rationale; The key stakeholders in this case study are; Internet users: In this case, the internet users are among the stakeholders because they influence the internet practices. The internet users have an influence to the process of acquiring and implementing solutions to the copyright infringement by acting in good faith and not going for the pirated information (Balganesh, 2013). Content owners; these are stakeholders in the particular case study since they are highly affected by copyright infringement as it is the case in this instance. The copyright holder goes through some financial harm once there is an emergence of criminal copyright issues (Wan, 2011). The content owners have the capacity to protect the digital content to prevent its access to the criminals, such as Nomm, in this case. Online service providers; they are stakeholders in this case study because of the fact that they lead to global internet traffic. The online service providers have a major influence in the reduction of the online infringement cases through regular monitoring of the online system (Savola, 2014). b) The situation (and reasoning) from their perspective; Internet Users: As a result of the copyright infringement, this leads to internet trafficking and hinder the internet users to enjoy the internet services. The internet users receive abusive messages and spam, which might lead to virus attack of their computers. The practice of increasing online access price leads to loss making because the content user is required to pay more for the access to the desired information. Content owner: The privacy breaches affect the creator of the content by bruising personal reputation and emptying of the information wallet. There is the damaging of reputation through the sending of some abusive messages and spam to the network users. The privacy breach does not respond efficiently to the account control, thus making it hard to identify the posts resulting from the fraudsters. One is given an impression that he/she failed to value personal intellectual property for efficient content protection (Wan, 2011). There is loss of the consumers once they realise that the content is not worth paying for. Identity theft is also a major problem suffered by the content owners. Because of the increased sharing of the personal information through the social media, this leads to easy access of the online accounts by the fraudsters. Once the facebook of email accounts are breached this makes the criminals manage to acquire the entire information capable of impersonating a person over the internet, thus making fraudulent payments are requesting for the credit through other people’s credit information or setting of the fake bank accounts using a person’s details. The content creator is required to increase the prices in order to cover the losses, which is not intentional (Newman, & Feldman, 2011). One loses personal earnings because of the limitation of the merchandising potential. The value of the content is reduced, thus affecting the content creator. Online service provider: The breaching of online copyright affects the performance of the service providers whereby they are forced to increase the legal fees. There are lost earnings because once the content is infringed, customers stop looking for the required information and migrate to other competent online service providers. The privacy breaching also leads to payment of less money to the content creator, thus affecting the creator-provider relationships. c) The major areas of conflict (if any) between these perspectives The three stakeholders fight against the preservation of their rights. The internet creators conflict with the internet users over the freedom for access to the online content. On the other hand, the online service providers might have conflicts with the content creators over the quality and quantity of the work. d) Relevant ethical view of each stakeholder Internet users: ethical relativism The internet users should be allowed to have access to the online content in order to feel the achievement of their self-interests. The infringement of the copyright affects their opportunity to right for service of personal needs (Wan, 2011). Content creators/ content owners: Utilitarianism The privacy breach leads to losses to the content creators because of the affected value and quality of an individual’s work. Online service providers: Universalism The online service providers are supposed to offer the services by treating all the people with respect. However, copyright breaching influences their responsibilities (Balganesh, 2013). e) Reflection of the circumstances described in the case study In this case, it is evident that there was copyright infringement of Megauoload.com, which is one of the word’s mostly known file sharing sites. From the fact that the site had over 50 million users daily, the breaching affected such a big number, which is about four percent of the global internet traffic. The site users freely uploaded approximately 12 billion files, thus leading to a great loss to the content creators. There was the closure of the site and the associated network, thus denying the service provider the chance of serving people or meeting the people’s needs. The widespread of the illegal material led to the arrest of the founder and seven men connected to the site were charged for copyright infringement. It is clear that some of the victims were subjected to criminal acts that they were not directly involved. The arrest of the copyright violators is not efficiently conducted because majority are just released after sometimes and repeat the same criminal acts (Arai, 2011). The involved stakeholders were justified in their point of view. By having a look at this case, it is evident that the content creator suffered financial harm of huge amounts of money. The service provider also went through issues of closure and the internet users suffered limitations in the usage of the internet content especially from the particular site in this case. 2) International Codes of Ethics The ethics and codes of conduct for Information Technology industry bodies; Australia (Australian Computer Society (ACS), British Computer Society (BCS), and Computer Society of India (CSI) a) The three Codes reviewed: The evaluation that the Code would most likely render regarding the situation described Australian Computer Society (ACS), The code of ethics undertake that every ACS member is supposed to uphold and improve dignity, honour and effectiveness while serving as a professional. In this situation, the ACS renders bad citizenship and violation of the law from the individuals involved in the infringement of copyright. The criminals associated with Megaupload.com failed to recognise the primacy of the users’ interest, but put their personal interests first (Barron, 2011). Moreover, the criminals negatively affected the quality of work of the content creator and the internet users. They also failed to work diligently and competently to their stakeholders and did not respect the society. British Computer Society (BCS), This code of conduct encourages the conduct of professionalism and ethical behaviour. The code could render the evaluation of the situation by identifying that those involved in the copyright infringement were not mindful of the safety of the environment neither that of the public. The content users were not treated with dignity and respect, as required (Karunaratne, 2012). The privacy violators also failed to their duty to the profession, appropriate authority, and their professional competence and integrity. Computer Society of India (CSI) The code of ethics required all SCI members abide into it and avoid misusing personal authority and office. The evaluation of this situation would be rendered that the site management team misused their power and office, failed to comply with the Indian laws, and did not maintain integrity in their operations (Savola, 2014). The stakeholder position that the Code would most likely support The content creators The codes would support the creator of the infringed work because of the experienced loss. The reputation of the content creator was damaged and lost their identity. b) The major differences/similarities between the three ethical codes of conduct you have examined and why these differences, similarities, or areas of conflict are present Similarities; All the three international codes of ethics insist on the proper usage of authority and consideration of the public interests and personal rights. The entire codes also emphasise on the need for acting with professionalism and demonstration of professional integrity (Newman, & Feldman, 2011). Differences: The CSI insist on the compliance to the Indian laws because it is based to serve the Indian society unlike the other codes. The BCS on the other hand requires the professionals to comply to the British authority. The ACS serves in connection to the ACS constitution. Unlike the other codes of ethics, the CSI insists that professionals should work towards upholding of the reputation and image of the CSI (Arai, 2011). These differences and similarities are present because the three codes of ethics are meant to be service nationally and they all revolve around the issue of copyright infringement. Report conclusion; Copyright infringement are common cases in the technology system. Due to increased internet usage in the digital world, the IT systems are highly vulnerable to privacy violations. The content creators internet users, and the online service providers are among the stakeholders in the identified case of copyright infringement. The content creators view the issue based on the loses suffered the same case with the online service providers. The internet users view the instance based on the issue of lack of opportunity to access the desired information. The international codes of ethics such as CSI, ACS, and BCS emphasise on professionalism and consideration of integrity, public interest, competence, as well as adherence to the relevant authority in order to offer quality services. Reference list Arai, Y. (2011). Civil and criminal penalties for copyright infringement. Information Economics and Policy, 23(3), 270-280. Balganesh, S. (2013). Copyright infringement markets. Columbia Law Review, 2277-2332. Barron, A. (2011). ‘Graduated Response’à l'Anglaise: Online Copyright Infringement and the Digital Economy Act 2010. Journal of Media Law, 3(2), 305-347. Karunaratne, S. B. (2012). The Case Against Combating BitTorrent Piracy Through Mass John Doe Copyright Infringement Lawsuits. Michigan Law Review, 283-309. Newman, J. C., & Feldman, R. (2011). Copyright and open access at the bedside. New England Journal of Medicine, 365(26), 2447-2449. Savola, P. (2014). Blocking injunctions and website operators’ liability for copyright infringement for user-generated links. European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR), (5), 279-288. Wan, K. S. (2011). Internet Service Providers' Vicarious Liability Versus Regulation of Copyright Infringement in China. Journal of Law, Technology and Policy, 2011(375). Codes ACS https://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/7835/Code-of-Ethics.pdf BCS http://www.teachict.com/as_a2_ict_new/ocr/A2_G063/336_implications_ict/ethics/miniweb/pg9.htm CSI http://www.csi-india.org/ethics.aspx Read More