Computer Ethics: final-exam study guide

The final exam will be at our usual time and in our usual room. The format will be "factual short answers", and you will have to answer, say, eight out of ten. Sample (more below):
  1. What is the central socal justification for software patents?
  2. Describe some reasons sometimes given for why software should not be patentable.
Topic areas from which such questions may be drawn may include the following:

copyright (Baase Chapter 4)
rights of copyright holders versus rights of users
The term "intellectual property"
file sharing
fair use
DMCA

privacy (Baase Chapter 2, also 6.5)
from employers
from government
security
matching / fraud prevention
patriot acts
from marketers
personal profiles
rfid
from copyright holders (RIAA lawsuits, ISP actions)
per-use content management           
   
software patents (Baase Chapter 4)
open source

speech (Baase Chapter 3)
encryption
dmca again (and "circumvention speech")
anonymity
libel
hoaxes
               
crime and trust (Baase chapter 5) (this material from our last class will be covered lightly, if at all)
jurisdiction (limited)
security: phishing, certificates, etc (no technical details!)
trusting your software
spyware
voting & democracy
hacking
        kutztown 13, randall schwartz, terry childs

Some sample questions

Some of these are from old exams where the questions were intended to be a little longer; as such, they may not be representative.

1. List the four Fair Use factors and discuss their applicability to the following situation:
Music "sampling": including brief 1-3 sec snippets of other songs as background for a new song
   
2. It is sometimes suggested that music file copyrights could be enforced by encrypting them and by having the content owners  supply proprietary players (with built-in decryption keys) that would check the license. List some drawbacks of this scheme.

3. Discuss some universal principles applicable to user rights and obligations relating to listening to digital music. That is, discuss music copyrights from a deontological perspective. If you argue that listeners have no fundamental rights here, you should support that; otherwise, state what those rights are and why they are fundamental.

4. Jolene collects software from friends. She copies the installation CD, installs the software on her computer, and gives it a try. Generally she then does nothing more with it, but she has plenty of disk space and so doesn't usually delete it. "I might need it someday to open a file I receive" is what she says to herself. In fact, she seldom does even that. When she finds software she does use, however, she usually (though not always) ends up buying it; if not right away, then when the next version release comes out. Discuss this situation from a copyright perspective; in particular; rate the "severity" of the copyright/license violations here. Are the software companies facing financial harm from Jolene's actions?

5. Many sites offer music lyrics on the Internet. One argument in favor of these is that making lyrics available does not affect CD sales at all: nobody buys a CD just to find out what the lyrics were. List some of the ethical implications of supplying online lyrics, and also briefly address the business issue of whether musicians and the RIAA would be better off suppressing such sites or encouraging them.

6. Consider the development of a single medical-records database in the US. What are some of the privacy implications of such a database? Should the records be available to any hospital or doctor, on the theory that they wouldn't ask for your records unless you were a patient? Or should you, the patient, have to authorize access to the records? How would that authorization work, especially in emergeny situations?

7. At one point the US government proposed rules on the use of encryption systems that would have required that decryption keys be placed in "escrow": that is, decryption keys would have to be turned over to a newly created office of the federal government which would only release them to other government offices if there were a search warrant or the equivalent. List some of the concerns citizens might have about such a "key escrow" system, and how they might be handled. 

8. Suppose the movie industry arrives at the following marketing arrangement. One can buy movies as before, in DVD format, for $20 each. Alternatively, you can download the movie (in protected format) and for $10 receive a license to watch the movie for one week. Older and less popular movies would be discounted proportionately. Describe some of the privacy issues. Assume that movie license purchases (unlike cash purchases) cannot be made anonymously, and that the movie licensing bureau keeps track of such purchases.

9. Suppose an online technical site has space for users to post pseudonymous comments. Recently, however, the posting section is being abused, as some users post hostile flames directed at other users. In order to restore civility, the site proposes that users will continue to be allowed to use pseudonyms, but must register with a real name, and the real names will be revealed to anyone who complains. (At the other extreme are policies guaranteeing real names will be released only with a court order.) Discuss this proposed revelation policy, and describe some possible consequences. Is there any intermediate position a site might take, in between revealing to all and revealing only under court order?

10. In the very early days of file sharing, the argument was sometimes made that file sharing would free musicians from recording companies. Musicians would be able to reach out directly to listeners, and make their music available (either free or for purchase) on the Internet. Concerts would be handled as before (possibly using the Internet to cut out Ticketmaster; possibly not). Comment on this as a business model. Consider in what cases it might work and in what cases it would likely not. Finally, draw a connection between your conclusions regarding the viability of this model and the sometime-popular theory that file sharing is justified when the bulk of the commercial losses falls on recording companies and not musicians.

11. The "fair use" doctrine was introduced in the 1976[?] copyright law. The US constitution states that
 Congress shall have Power ... To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Discuss whether or not the fair use doctrine is constitutionally guaranteed, or whether it is just another law that Congress can repeal or diminish as necessary (eg with the DMCA).

12. In the NTP-RIM lawsuit about the Campana patents for wireless email delivery, the judge was poised to issue an injunction shutting down the Blackberry wireless network at the same time that the Patent Office was poised to issue a preliminary ruling that the NTP patents in question were not valid.
(a). Give a one-sentence explanation for how this could happen.
(b). Suggest a patent-reform proposal that would address this.

13. Give two reasons why published prior art can seem particularly difficult to find for software.