Chapter 23: Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral

Challenges of Online File Sharing 

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599

What I expect to learn?

I expect to learn about Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral

Challenges of Online File Sharing

Quote:

Review:

The technology at the center of these copyright disputes is a software that enables

Computer users to share digital files over a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

The Web has emboldened free riders and engendered a new ethic on copying

Proprietary material based on the belief that cultural products such as movies and

Music should be freely available online to anyone who wants them.  There are two doctrines of secondary liability in current copyright law. First,  Contributory infringement pertains to “one who, with knowledge of the infringing activity, induces, causes, or materially contributes to the infringing conduct” .Second, “one maybe vicariously liable if he has the right and ability to supervise the infringing activity and also has a direct financial interest in such activities” The Internet has many “gatekeepers,” from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and search engines to purveyors of certain types of network software. “Code is law,” and given the great power of software code as a logical constraint, software providers have a moral obligation to avoid the temptations of writing antiregulatory code.

What I Learned?

Integrative Question:

1. What can the network do?
2. What does the web conrtributes?
3. What is the two doctrines of second liability?
4. What does internet have?
5. What does Lessig remind us about?

Discussion:

1. What can the network do?

The technology at the center of these copyright disputes is a software that enables

computer users to share digital files over a peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

1. What does the web conrtributes?

The Web has emboldened free riders and engendered a new ethic on copying

proprietary material based on the belief that cultural products such as movies and

music should be freely available online to anyonewho wants them.

1. What is the two doctrines of second liability?

There are two doctrines of secondary liability in current copyright law. First,

contributory infringement pertains to “one who, with knowledge of the infringing

activity, induces, causes, or materially contributes to the infringing conduct” .Second, “one may

be vicariously liable if he has the right and ability to supervise the infringing activity

and also has a direct financial interest in such activities” 

1. What does internet have?

The Internet has many “gatekeepers,” from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and

search engines to purveyors of certain types of network software.

1. What does Lessig remind us about?

“Code is law,” and given the great power of software code as a logical constraint, software providers have a moral obligation to avoid the temptations of writing antiregulatory code.