CS 622: ETHICS, LAW, and POLICY

Syllabus

©1998 Daniel J. Ryan

 

Summary Course Description:

This course is intended for managers and practitioners of computer science, and is designed to create awareness of the ethical issues, legal resources and recourses, and policy implications inherent in our evolving on-line society. The course provides an overview of the ethical challenges faced by individuals and organizations in the information age and introduces the complex and dynamic state of law as it applies to behavior in cyberspace. It is intended to sensitize managers and computer professionals to the pitfalls and dangers of doing business in an interconnected world, and to familiarize the student with various organizations and materials that can be turned to for assistance in understanding how to ethically and legally operate and use modern computer systems and networks.

 

Disclaimer

This course is not intended to turn computer professionals or managers into lawyers. The instructor is a lawyer, and many of the topics to be discussed will be concerned with the law and the legal implications of certain behavior. Every effort will be made to provide accurate and complete information. Please note, however, that at no time during this course will legal advice be offered. Any student or attendee needing legal advice should seek the services of a lawyer authorized to practice in the appropriate jurisdiction.

 

Course Prerequisites:

CS 510, 511, 512, 550, 555, 574 (the Computer Science core curriculum); also CS 623, Introduction to Information Security.

 

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

a. Use basic ethical theories to evaluate the fairness of a proposed or extant collection of policies, laws, regulations, guidelines and practices designed to mitigate the risk and punish the misuse of on-line systems.

b. Analyze and evaluate proposed or extant information security policies, practices and procedures in order to assess, in concert with their organization's legal representatives and advisors, potential legal liabilities that might flow from implementing them.

c. Create policies and standard operating procedures for an organization that are ethically, morally and legally sound.

 

Textbooks and Other Source Materials:

 

Primary Text:

• Rose, Lance, Netlaw: Your Rights in an Online World, Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkley, CA, 1995

 

Other Valuable Books:

• Alderman, Ellen and Kennedy, Caroline, The Right to Privacy, Alfred Knopf, New York, NY, 1995
• Bowyer, Kevin W., Ethics and Computing: Living Responsibly in a Computerized World, IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, CA, 1996
• Johnson, Deborah G., and Nissenbaum, Helen, Computers, Ethics and Social Values, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995
• Kennedy, Charles H., An Introduction to U.S. Telecommunications Law, Artech House, Boston, 1994
• Knight, Peter and Fitzsimmons, James, The Legal Environment of Computing, Addison Wesley, New York, NY, 1990
• Moore, Dinty W., The Emperor's Virtual Clothes: The Naked Truth about Internet Culture, Algonquin Book, Chapel Hill, NC, 1995
• Rosenblatt, Kenneth S., High-Technology Crime: Investigating Cases Involving Computers, KSK Publications, San Jose, CA, 1995
• Schwartz, Paul M., and Reidenberg, Joel R., Data Privacy Law, Michie, Charlottesville, VA, 1996
• Wright, Benjamin, The Law of Electronic Commerce - EDI, Fax, and E-mail: Technology, Proof and Liability, Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1991

 

On-Line Materials nd Useful Sources:

• United States Historical Documents http://www.law.uoknor.edu/ushist.html
• Research on the Laws of Other Countries http://web.lawcrawler.com/
• Legal Research in General http://www.findlaw.com/
• Dispute Resolution and Arbitration http://www.find;aw.com/01topics/11disputres/index.html
• Business Organizations http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/cats/struct.htm
• More on Business Organizations http://www.nolo.com/runs/intro.html
• The Electronic Freedom Frontier http://www.eff.org/
• The Computer Security Act of 1987 http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/copyright.faq

Other cases and reference materials are provided for specific topics infra. Still others will be mentioned during the course.

 

Students are encouraged to use as many and varied sources as possible in exploring the ethical, moral and legal questions presented during the course, and to share those sources with their classmates. References to sources should be explicit in exchanges among the students and instructor, and will be considered in determining the extent to which each student participated for purposes of awarding grades.

 

 

 

Day 1 Agenda:

Introduction (06/27/98): An Interactive Lecture

• Administrative matters concerning the course.
• Ethics, morality, etiquette, and the law.
• The United States Legal System.
• Case Analysis: The T. J. Hooper, 60 F.2^nd 737 (2d Cir. 1932) (L. Hand, J.), cert. denied, 287 U.S. 662 (1932).
• Overview: Property Law. Tort Law. Criminal Law. Constitutional Law. Contract Law.

 

Required Reading for Day 1 Subject Matter:

Text: Introduction, pp, xv-xx, Appendix J.

 

Cases:

• The T. J. Hooper, 60 F.2^nd 737 (2d Cir. 1932) (L. Hand, J.), cert. denied, 287 U.S. 662 (1932).

 

Source material:

• The United States Legal System http://members.tripod.com/~Dan_Ryan/legsys.ppt
• Understanding the Federal Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/understanding_courts/899_toc.htm
• Federal Courts Home Page http://www.uscourts.gov/

 

 

Grading Policy:

The overall course grade will be established as follows:

• 30%: Quality of student participation in discussions. A number of problems will be posed for class consideration and discussion during the course. Be sure you participate in those discussions. Separate participation grades will be given for each portion of the course:
  • Day 1: face-to-face discussion
  • Each and every week, Weeks 1 through 5: electronic discussion, and
  • Closing day of course
• 40%: Writing Assignments (20% each).
• 30%: Final Project.