Computer Ethics, Summer 2017


Corboy 302, Tuesdays and Thursdays
Class 10

Class 10 Readings

Finish reading the remaining sections of Chapter 4, especially 4.6 on software patents.
Start reading Chapter 5 on Computer Crime.

The main course notes are in the Notes Organized by Topic section on the main web page. Reading assignments, comments on the class discussion and occasional special notices are in these week-by-week notes.



Social Cooling: the chilling effect. Or is this theory just, well, overheated? Do you really avoid clicking on websites because of what the trackers might think?

Facebook's Real Name Policy criticized: Except that the exposure of Facebook moderator's real names was a software glitch, not directly attributable to the real-name policy, as the Guardian article makes clear. Of more interest, perhaps, is the claim that Facebook's valuation is $219 per user, for 2 billion monthly users. Facebook's market value is indeed $450 billion, which comes out to $225 per monthly user. For Twitter the numbers are 300 million monthly users and a market cap of 14 billion, which works out to $46/user. But is that difference due to Facebook's insistence on real names, or due to Twitter having no real purpose?



Do you think the patent system protects startups?

Some Software Patents:
    Stack Pointer, setuid bit, British Telecom, RSA