Sample Worksheet -
Developing Global Concerns About Piracy

Brief Synopsis:  A student has landed a summer internship (junior year) with a company for whom s/he would ultimately like to be employed.  When asked to do a software audit of what copies of which application software packages exist on the company's desktops and laptops in the international setting, s/he begins to discover something which may be a potential problem.  Although s/he must reconcile the number of copies of the software on the machines with the invoice for their purchase, s/he discovers by the middle of the summer that only a few copies appear to have been purchased. What should the student employee do about this, if anything?

After discussing the facts of the case with your instructor or peers,  determine if there seems to be an ethical issue here.  If the consensus is not, continue reading or move on to another scenario.  If the group conclusion is that an ethical issue exists, write a statement down in your own words or the "group-smithed" words of what you believe to be the ethical issue confronted here.  Then, continue reading:

After much reflection and remembering s/he is being paid a substantial wage and wishes to be employed after the coming school year, the student decides to write out for reflection as many options as s/he believes are available and viable.  Write down a set of such options now.  (You should easily be able to come up with four or five.)  After completing this list of five options (or more), individually or in a small group write out at least one positive AND negative result of each and every action.

After completing this process described above, determine individually (or in the group) which of the actions appears to be the "best" ethical action to take.  Write out briefly the reason(s) why you believe this to be the best strategy.
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1.  State in your own words, concisely, the action being reviewed in this case.
 
 

2.  Do you believe there is an ethical issue to be reviewed here?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  Describe and justify briefly in a short paragraph.
 
 

3.  Are U.S. regulations on intellectual property relevant here (outside of the U.S.)?  Is there international agreement on some of these issues?   Discuss both of these questions.
 
 
 

4.  List possible alternative actions with at least one implication or risk of doing each [per the example below].

    ACTION                                                    IMPLICATION(s) or RISK(s)
    ----------                                                  -----------------------------------------
A.  Do nothing                                                1.  There may be no implication, or ???
 

B.
 

C.
 

D.
 

E.
 

F. (or more)

5.  Select the action you feel is most ethically appropriate and explain the logic for your conclusion. [Is this the same as justifying your action?]
 

6.  React to each of the following "what if" questions including a short rationale for the response.

• What if the situation occurs in one's own home community in the U.S.  Does this make a difference in one's response or the decision choice?

• What is the student's internship is two states away and s/he plans never to work for the company in the future because of the company's misconduct, if there is any?

• What if the company is just "testing to see how the student intern will react"?  Are there other ethical ramifications in this situation?

• What if an invoice for the other "90 something" copies is "discovered" after the student has reached her/his action decision?

• What if this business was actuality a not-for-profit organization commissioned to feed the hungry and homeless in the host country?

• What if the student was doing volunteer service for an agency overseas and several thousand dollars had been raised by friends and family back home for the student to do this voluntary service?  Does this introduce and raise new ethical issues?

7.  (Optional)  Any additional comments you wish to submit about this case study?