Ethics in a Computing Culture

1. Ethics in a Computing Culture Chapter 7 Democracy, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of the Press

2. Objectives How are current free speech laws interpreted when we apply them to recent methods of expression? In what ways are these free speech laws insufficient for our new forms of expression? What types of speech are generally not protected by previously established laws? Ethics in a Computing Culture

3. Understanding the First Amendment First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Ethics in a Computing Culture

4. Understanding the First Amendment (continued) If someone authored a book giving detailed instructions on how to cheaply make bombs suitable for terrorists, should the government have the right to punish the author and/or the publisher if the book is published? Suppose someone creates a Web site giving detailed instructions on how to cheaply make bombs suitable for terrorists. Would that be different from publishing the same information in a book? Ethics in a Computing Culture

5. Understanding the First Amendment (continued) • Suppose a major communication company opposed the policies advocated by a particular political action group. The communication company, which controlled a large portion of the phone communication in the United States, simply blocked the calls to and from that action group. • Does the First Amendment prohibit the communication company from censoring the political action organization? • Should such censorship be allowed by law? Ethics in a Computing Culture

6. Case: New York Times v. Sullivan • Justices Black and Goldberg both argued that criticism of public officials by the press should be protected, even if there is malice. • Suppose one presidential candidate makes untrue malicious statements about his opponent in an advertisement in the New York Times. • Should it be possible, under the New York Times v. Sullivan decision, for the wronged candidate to sue the New York Times for that? Ethics in a Computing Culture

7. Case: New York Times v. Sullivan (continued) • Suppose a Web site in France makes untrue malicious statements about a United States senator. Suppose further, that the Web site’s creator is a citizen of the United States who is living temporarily in France. • Should the senator be able to sue that person for libel? Ethics in a Computing Culture

8. Case: WikiLeaks • Suppose Secretary of State Clinton is correct and the leaks put people’s lives in danger. • Would it be proper to prosecute the New York Times for publishing the documents? Ethics in a Computing Culture

9. Case: WikiLeaks (continued) • Suppose Assange was arrested in the United States and brought to trial for publishing the leaked United States documents, and his case was considered by the United States Supreme Court. • How do you think the Supreme Court would rule? Ethics in a Computing Culture

10. Case: DeCSS Can information that has already been posted on the Internet be a trade secret? Are there differences among supplying an electronic copy of a program to someone, printing the program code in a book, and printing the program on a tee shirt? Ethics in a Computing Culture

11. Foundations of Free Speech • John Stuart Mill: “… the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” • Speech that is not protected: • Dangerous: yelling “fire” in a crowded theater • Treasonous: revealing military secrets • Seditious: untrue criticisms of the government • Hate: derogatory remarks about a race, religion, or culture • Harmful to children, violent, disgusting, pornographic, psychologically painful, or blasphemous Ethics in a Computing Culture

12. Foundations of Free Speech (continued) • Suppose you are a member of the United States Supreme Court and you must decide whether the following list of sedition convictions should stand. • For each case, suppose a federal law was recently passed that specifically forbad the action described. Also suppose that, in each case, the defendant actually did what he or she was accused of doing. Ethics in a Computing Culture

13. Foundations of Free Speech (continued) • The time was shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The defendant went to funerals and memorial services of the victims of the attacks and proclaimed with a bullhorn that the dead deserved their fate. • The time was 2003, one week before the second U.S. invasion of Iraq. The defendant leaked original documents from various intelligence agencies about the investigations into the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. • The time was 2005, shortly before the establishment of a new Iraqi government. The defendant, on a nationally televised show, burned a copy of the Koran. Ethics in a Computing Culture

14. Case: Interactive Course for Terrorist Training • Consider this statement: • Video games should be regulated and children younger than 18 should not be allowed to purchase games that are deemed too violent by a state review board. Ethics in a Computing Culture

15. Case : Objections to Santa Claus • Suppose a person who opposed the promotion of Santa Claus at Christmas went to shopping malls and city streets telling children that Santa Claus is dead. • The city, in order to stop that behavior, passed an ordinance forbidding anyone from accosting a child with any statement inconsistent with “community standards,” a term which was not defined by the law. • Suppose the person was arrested and convicted of violating that ordinance and eventually the case reached the US Supreme Court where you are the judge. • Is this ordinance constitutional? Ethics in a Computing Culture

16. Case: Texas School Board Bans Wrong Author • Suppose a school board banned a textbook that it previously adopted because it was written by a person who was discovered to be a criminal. The author sues the school board. • If you were the judge, how would you decide the case? • Suppose a school board banned a textbook that it previously adopted because it was written by a person who was an atheist. The author sues the school board. • How would you decide this case? Ethics in a Computing Culture

17. Case: Texas School Board Bans Wrong Author (continued) • Suppose a school board banned a book because it included Darwin’s theory of evolution, which was considered offensive to members of the board. • Should the school board be allowed to do that? • Consider this statement: • A school board has responsibility for protecting the children attending the schools within its jurisdiction and consequently must apply standards for textbooks consistent with the standards of the community within that jurisdiction. Ethics in a Computing Culture

18. Political Censorship Filtering: the interception and removal of messages in a network to prevent them from reaching their destination Yahoo! was within its legal rights to choose to take the items that were illegal in France off the market for everybody, even though the items were legal in the United States. Ethics in a Computing Culture

19. Political Censorship (continued) Yahoo! argued that because they were doing business in China, they were obligated to obey Chinese law. Do you accept that argument? Suppose Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft were all doing business in China and the Chinese government required them to intentionally exclude any sites on China’s banned list from appearing in the search results of any query anywhere in the world; all three agreed in order to continue doing business in China. Ethics in a Computing Culture

20. Censorship Relating to Social Norms and Morality • Justice Stewart: “I know it when I see it.” • Is the Serrano photograph of the crucifix in urine pornographic? • Miller test: for defining obscene materials: • The average adult person, applying community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of the viewer. • The work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law. • The work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (aka the SLAPS test). Ethics in a Computing Culture

21. Censorship Relating to Social Norms and Morality (continued) • Pandering obscenity: legal term; charged against museum director in the 1990s for displaying Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs • Suppose Mapplethorpe’s exhibition was on the Internet rather than at an art museum. • Does this affect whether Mapplethorpe’s work is pornographic? Ethics in a Computing Culture

22. Case: A Pornographic Artist • Suppose art critics generally agree that Mr. Rand’s paintings have no artistic merit. • Should Mr. Rand be convicted of pandering obscenity? • Suppose art critics generally agree that Mr. Rand’s paintings have considerable artistic merit. • Should Mr. Rand be convicted of pandering obscenity? Ethics in a Computing Culture

23. Case: A Pornographic Artist (continued) • Suppose a person viewed Mr. Rand’s exhibit and shortly thereafter committed a violent sex crime. • Should Mr. Rand be held legally responsible? • Suppose Mr. Rand’s exhibits were on the Internet rather than on physical canvases. • Does this change your opinion? Ethics in a Computing Culture

24. Private Censorship and the First Amendment Should broadband Internet providers be considered common carriers? Suppose e-mail were given the same protections as regular mail. Would that have any effect on your view of whether broadband Internet providers should be common carriers? Do you agree with Google’s argument that its search ordering is necessarily neutral? Ethics in a Computing Culture

25. Private Censorship and the First Amendment (continued) • Suppose a particular Web site is the cause for an extreme amount of traffic and one or more Internet providers block all traffic to and from that site in an effort to avoid delays for the rest of their customers. • Is this a legitimate curtailing of Internet traffic? Ethics in a Computing Culture

26. Private Censorship and the First Amendment (continued) Was Yale University Press’s decision to expunge the images of Muhammad from Jytte Klausen’s book morally permissible? Did the illustrators who chose to create the drawings act morally when they made the caricatures of Muhammed? Ethics in a Computing Culture