Computer Ethics (was: Re: The Internet Virus--A Commentary)

[Tim J Ihde]

In article <5390 at medusa.cs.purdue.edu> spaf at cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes:
>I never claimed a course in ethics (or anything else) will help each
>and every undergraduate live by the rules.  However, it will help a
>significant number of students understand the rules bit better than the
>current system does, and that is important.  If we advance the average,
>it is a gain even if we don't advance every point.

This is a good point.  While I was an undergraduate, my operating systems
professor took one day out of the class for a discussion on ethics.  As I
recall, this simple question took the whole time:

If another student has directory and file permissions set so that you can
look at his or her files, is it ethical for you as another student to
	look at the .profile?
	look at the mbox?
	look at the last finished project?
	look at the current working project?

>From the general reaction, it was obvious that almost none of the class had
even considered the matter.  There were arguments on both sides (in fact the
professor insisted that there be debate), but I think the fact that the
discussion existed at all was A Good Thing.  If the student cannot resolve such
questions, how will the student hired as system administrator do?

The next year's students took an entire course on ethics, which I missed, but
I'm glad to have been involved in the discussion.

-- 
Tim J Ihde				UUCP:	    att!attdso!tim
(201) 898-6687				INTERNET:   tim at attdso.att.com
"Blimey - this redistribution of wealth is more complicated than I'd thought!"
		- Dennis Moore and various Presidents