Computer and Information Ethics

From the Publisher: Information technology has provided numerous options to individuals, governments, and corporations around the world. These options demand that choices be made, and such choices often involve ethical decisions. Users must decide, for example, whether certain data should be made available on the Internet, whether the information contained in various databases should be sold to third parties, and whether software developers should be held responsible for social and economic problems that result from their programs. This book provides a rigorous but accessible discussion of some of the major ethical issues concerning computers and information technology. The text gives particular attention to widespread issues concerning intellectual property rights, censorship, and privacy, along with less frequently raised topics, such as ethical worries about image manipulation, virtual reality, and the moral status of "intelligent" machines and expert systems.