MORALITY
in the Age of the Net
How
does the Internet create tensions between private and public?
The advent of the
Internet has revived the age-old tension between the private and the public in the lives of Americans. This tension played out in a new medium has led to new
ethical questions that pit private and public standards of morality against each
other. This tension is centered on
where you think the boundary between the private and the public in cyberspace
lies, for often what you define as acceptable action in the private might not be
acceptable in the public. In what sense are your actions on the Internet
occurring in the private domain, and therefore subject to your definition of
morality? Or in what ways are your actions really public, potentially harmful to
others, and thus subject to public concepts of morality?
Here
is what an expert at Notre Dame has to say about the tensions between private
and public:
* In her upcoming casebook, Cyberlaw,
Professor Tricia Bellia of the University
of Notre Dame Law School offers her viewpoint concerning the relationship
between public and private regulation:
"Some commentators have
argued, however, that the state action doctrine rests on the illusory hope
that we can draw a clear and coherent line between what constitutes public as
opposed to private behavior. Indeed, Supreme Court decisions about state
action have been uncertain and often inconsistent. As scholars
frequently have criticized the state action doctrine both as a matter of
historical fidelity and public policy. On the other hand, just because a
line is difficult to draw does not necessarily mean there should not be any
line. And, as a practical matter, most of us experience a difference
between public and private acts in our daily lives and therefore might find it
counterintuitive to conflate the two."
Here are three different
cases that lay out the debate between the Internet being private or public:
Case One: The Morality of the MP3
The ability to download music off the Internet is now commonplace. However, this
practice is surrounded in moral controversy. How you feel about this issue
depends on whether you see the Internet as a private space where you can share
and interact with friends according to your personal standards of morality, or
as a public domain where laws and public moral standards come into play.
For example, if the Internet is akin to a public domain, how is downloading
music morally different from stealing a CD from a store?
By downloading music aren’t you really depriving the musicians of the
royalties they deserve for their creation?
However, If you see the Internet as a private area, then what is wrong with
sharing what you have with your friends? Isn’t
that what peer-to-peer software is? Is sharing music with friends over the
Internet morally different from common actions such as copying a newspaper or
magazine article and passing it along to a friend that might enjoy it?
The articles below
may shed some light onto the morality of downloading music off the Internet, and
provide you with the information you need to help you decide where you fall when
it comes to sharing music over the Internet.
In
Support of Downloading Music off the Internet
|
In
Opposition to Downloading Music off the Internet
|
Free
Music Philosophy:
To allow for all individuals to experience the artistic benefits of music,
it is necessary that all are able to access it equally.
|
Pay
for your Music:
Paying for the music you listen to is not restricting your liberty it is
only a way to restrain the use so that the artist can be compensated.
|
Napster
not Liable for Actions of Private Users: Napster may have created the
software, but they say they cannot be responsible for how other people use
it. What individuals do in
their own homes, is a private act and Napster cannot be accountable for
private actions.
|
Piracy
Hurts Everyone:
Not everything in life is or should be free of charge.
If you don’t give what is due to the artists, then eventually the
artists will cease to create.
|
Downloading
Music Increases Sales: Studies show that making music available
on-line actually increases the sale of music in the stores. You might actually be doing the musicians a favor by
downloading music!
|
RIAA:
The official site for the Recording Industry Association of America.
If you
can’t access the RIAA’s website – here’s
why!
|
Case Two: The
Hacker Culture
Most people would agree that breaking into someone’s private home is
immoral and not socially acceptable; however, for many the concept of hacking
into someone’s computer is not seen as a bad thing by all.
Is your computer and what is on it completely private even though you are
connected to the Internet or a network? If
your computer is private, should it and the information it possesses be accorded
the same protection as your house or other material possessions?
If the Internet is a public realm, does that mean that your computer and
the information it transmits over the Internet should be considered public as
well? If you see the Internet as a public realm, does this change how you view
the morality of hacking? Does
hacking have good purposes, such as forcing security measures to become
increasingly better?
Defending
the Hacker
|
The
Hacker as a Thief
|
Hacking
as a Form of Anti-War Protest: Incidents of hacking may be increasing,
but is this a bad thing? Hackers
in recent times have defaced government websites as a sign of protest
against the war in Iraqi.
|
Akin
to Stealing a Car: In a straight-forward argument, you can see how
hacking into a computer/network is no different than stealing private
property, such as a car.
|
The
Hacking Contest and Russian
Hacking Culture: Examples
of how hackers can find the loopholes in the security systems of
corporations. If this happens, then the corporations can fix the loopholes
in order to make their systems more secure.
|
|
Case Three:
The Ethics of Forwarding
E-mail is quickly becoming the preferred form of communication – over the
regular postal system that is. With
this shift in communication styles, the ease of forwarding messages onto
other people has become almost effortless. Do you view e-mail communication as a
private or public matter? Is it ok
to forward a personal e-mail letter onto others? Is an e-mail any different than
a
letter sent through the postal system? The plight of Laurie
Garrett highlights this issue and its implications.
Garrett, a reporter for Newsday, wrote an e-mail to her friends about her
experiences at the World Economic Forum. In
it she, in a very candid manner, describes opinions about the U.S and its
relationship to other countries that she gleamed during the forum. The e-mail
was then forwarded on by one her friends, who then forwarded it on, etc., etc.
In the end her e-mail was posted all over the Internet, with her personal
comments out there for all to read. Is
what happened moral? You decide.
The
Garrett e-mail
Discussion of the e-mail on the
Internet
Garrett’s Reaction