Ethics paper 1

Paper 1: use of course materials found on the Internet

Due: Monday, Sept 29. Your paper must be submitted electronically, either via email or through the Blackboard digital dropbox.

Professor Ulrich is to teach a course on Economics at privateschool.edu, a regional private university. He searches the Internet, and finds the following materials on various faculty web pages at major universities:

a course outline
some notes on nanoeconomics
a set of powerpoint slides

He downloads and uses them for his course. The slides are marked with the original author's name. At no point does Dr Ulrich pretend any of the materials are his own work; however, he doesn't exactly advertise their sources, either. He merges the course outline with his own, in order to come up with the syllabus he wants. He incorporates parts of the notes on nanoeconomics into his own, and includes a link to the original site for those who want to read more. He uses the slides directly (and also puts a copy on his own course's private Blackboard page); the original author's name is clearly visible on the first slide.

There is no indication at the original site whether there are any restrictions on the use of the materials, although the materials are from web pages intended for specific courses. Dr Ulrich reasons that the original authors put the materials online and so they are intended for public use, or at least for public educational use. He also feels that the outline, at least, is really too sketchy and insubstantial to be "owned" by anyone; there aren't that many ways to structure an economics course. The notes and slides, however, contain some detailed examples, some detailed graphics, and some carefully prepared and sequenced case studies. However, Dr Ulrich argues to himself that there is no substantial difference between copying the notes and slides and simply linking to them.

Discuss whether Dr Ulrich's use of the material is appropriate. You should begin your paper with a brief one-paragraph summary of the situation, so that your paper is self-contained.

In your analysis, here are a few points to consider:

whether Dr Ulrich's use constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law
whether it matters how aggressively Dr Ulrich credits the original author
who are all the stakeholders
which stakeholders are negatively affected by Ulrich's use, and how
whether the students have any special interests or obligations here
why Dr Ulrich might not want to ask permission, and whether he should anyway

Your primary focus should be on what is appropriate behavior, NOT on whether any given actions are legal or not.

You may take either a utilitarian or a deontological approach, or use both.

Are there any specific details here which, if handled differently, would change your conclusion? If so, try to point some out and explain the difference; if not, and you feel the situation is quite clear-cut, explain why.

Expected length: 3-4 pages (600+ words)