MODULE 13 SAQ 1

1. Are you in favor of the enactment and enforcement of laws that will regulate and control the use of computer technology? Why or why not? Defend your answer.

Yes, I am in favor for having an enactment and enforcement of law to regulate and control the use of technology because it will give guidelines to follow by the user and it will give sign of boundary or limitation of the user in using a computer technology. Some cases in computing are because of lack of rules and regulation regarding of what is the proper way of using computer technology. That is why they have so many violation committed by the users, it is because of the late action regarding the use of our computer technology. Like for example, the students who made the I LOVE YOU virus, before this happen the government have no given rule.


2. If you were to decide the case of Landmark Hacking, what will be your judgment? Support your answer.

If I were to decide the case, since Cesar Mañalac is the reason why Leilani Garcia have an access with the Thames International Business School, the fault of Thames International Business School is that they way of accessing Mr. Mañalac since he is no longer connected to the said school. If the company is too large and has a lot of confidential matters, the key/password in accessing must be restricted to the authorized person and if the employee or personnel is no longer working it is automatically he/she have no access at any transaction to the company. It is responsibility of the company check time to time to the employees connections. Hacking is somewhere out there, we cannot control them, in this situation the only thing we can control is the things in our hand.

MODULE 12 Activity 1 & 2

1. From the cases summarized above, explain what constitute a computer crime.

Computers and computer networks create new categories of crimes that did not exist in the pre-computer age. While technology has advanced quickly, the law has not. New crimes often do not fit the parameters of the preexisting legal framework. The widespread use of computers has resulted in a new challenge for law enforcement- computer crime. A computer crime can be said to occur when a computer is the target of the offense, that is, when the actor’s conduct is designed to steal information from, or cause damage to, a computer or computer network. Some computer crime definitions also include cases in which the computer is an integral tool in committing an offense. For example, a bank teller might write a computer program to skim small amounts of money from a large number of accounts. Although this might constitute a computer crime, such conduct is prohibited by traditional criminal laws, and could be charged accordingly.

2. Discuss at least three other examples of computer crimes.

The three given examples are only a part of millions computing problems. Today, it is quite difficult for a common user to determine where from and how his computer system can be attacked. More often it could be a virus attack, internet worms , spam, causing a denial of service, restricted information theft and, finally, internal threats.

Example#1:

Former IT Manager of Software Firm Indicted on Computer Crime Charges

The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that the former Information Technology Manager of Creative Explosions, Inc., a Silicon Valley software firm, was indicted today by a federal grand jury on charges that he gained unauthorized access to the computer system of his former employer, reading email of the company's president and damaging the company's computer network. Creative Explosions, Inc., is based in Scotts Valley, California.
The indictment charges Roman Meydbray, 27, of San Jose, California, with two counts of unlawful access to stored communications and one count each of intentionally causing damage to a computer and unauthorized access to a computer, recklessly causing damage. An affidavit filed in support of a search warrant alleges that Mr. Meydbray deleted a domain page of Creative Explosions and made configuration changes to email servers that caused e-mail to be rejected.
According to the indictment, Mr. Meydbray was employed by Creative Explosions from November 2001 to November 7, 2003, originally as Information Technology Manager and then as Network Manager. Creative Explosions is a software development company that produces and sells software programs that enable users to create high quality multimedia websites. The indictment alleges that less than two weeks after the company terminated his employment, Mr. Meydbray gained unauthorized access into Creative Explosions' computer system to change passwords on email accounts, read email of its president, and intentionally and recklessly cause damage.
The maximum statutory penalty for the counts of unlawful access to stored communications and causing reckless damage on a computer is five years in prison. The maximum penalty for intentionally causing damage to a computer is ten years in prison. Each offense also carries a maximum fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss whichever is greater; a three year term of supervised release; and $100 mandatory special assessment. An indictment simply contains allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Mr. Meydbray must be presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
Mr. Meydbray is expected to make his initial appearance in February 2005 before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in San Jose, but a date has not been set yet.
The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Crime Squad in Oakland. The investigation was overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Mark L. Krotoski is the Assistant U.S. Attorney from the CHIP Unit who is prosecuting the case.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher P. Sonderby, Chief of the CHIP Unit, at (408) 535-5037, or Luke Macaulay at (415) 436-6757 or by email at Luke.Macaulay3@usdoj.gov.
SOURCE: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/cccases.html

Example#2:

Internet Hoax

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To:voelardo@yahoo.com
Subject:The Best Choice in Life
Date:Sun, 6 Mar 2005 07:54:03 +0800

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Thank you.Ruben If you have no need of owning online business or wish to not receivefurther emails, simply replies to this email with remove in the subjectline.

Example#3:

Internet Hoax

Date: ed, 19 Jan 2005 01:11:56 -0800 (PST)
From:"VICKY ELARDO" View Contact Details
Subject: will cry with laughter! Lol
To: "Roda Lopez" ohda19@yahoo.com

[This is a joke that is really funny and it works!]
An old lady walked into a Grocery Store.
She wanted to buy the best dog food in the world for her little puppy.
She went up to the cash register to buy the food.
The sales-lady told her that the store did not allow old ladies to buy animal food unless they show the actual animal because a lot of old ladies like to eat the animal food themselves.
So the old lady went home, got her dog and went back to the store to buy her dog food.
The next day she came back to buy the best cat food around But the Saleslady told her the same thing, so the old lady went back home and brought her cat to the Grocery Store to buy the cat food.
The next day the old lady went to the Grocery Store again carrying a big container. She went up to the sales lady and said, "Put your hand inside here". The Saleslady shook her head.. "NO", she said, "there is probably something in there that will bite me!" "I promise you that there is nothing in here that will bite you". the old lady said. So the Saleslady stuck her hand inside the container and screamed.
To find out what was inside the container you must send this to at least 10 people, when it says, your mail has been sent...instead of clicking OK, hit ALT-8 and the container will pop up on your screen.

MODULE 11 Activity 1

1. Account for the court ruling in the four cases discussed above on ethical grounds. That is, explain from an ethics standpoint the court ruling in each case.


CASE#1: Whelan vs. Jaslow case
The ethics standpoint Jaslow has the right to take a legal action because even a Whelan produce another system in different programming languages the owning of a patent on a computer algorithm and flow of the program will have the same output.

CASE#2: Computer Associates vs. Altai
In this case, Altai’s had no case of infringement because they have one programmer who made their program. It has a big possibility of having a similar output, it is because of the idea of the programmer. It is hard for the programmer to get another idea if they have the same initial problem, automatically same procedure or processing that the programmer will use.

CASE#3: Apple vs. Microsoft
In this case, the “look and feel” of a program, which is the way the program appears on the screen and interfaces with users, is also considered as part of ownership trade secrets and patent. For my judgment in this case, maybe they have similar in attraction and color combination but not the way of program it presented. I am agree with the decision of the court regarding the case because they only have a similarity, means it’s not exactly the same.


CASE#4: Lotus look and feel suit
In this kind of case, I ask my self why they have different policy, rules and regulation or even decision since they are in one country which is US. The Lotus won consecutive cases and they have the right of appealing the case but, why Borland won in the US first Circuit Court? And another question in my mind is, why does the US Supreme Court did nit finalize the case since they are the one who will close the issue and give enlightenment for the companies involved? I think the problem is in the part of their government. I can not see the dignity and honor of the person in the US Supreme Court, maybe this is the virtue of ethics needed on their position.

MODULE 10 Activity 1 & 2

1. Discuss one of the issues taken up in this module from the point of view of the preliminary and finalist theories discussed in Module 3 and 4. Note that you must discuss the issue you choose from six perspectives (three preliminary theories and three finalist theorist). To put it another way, you must come up with six-perspective on the issue.

Issue regarding PORNOGRAPHY

PRELIMINARY THEORIES
Ethical Relativism
In this part of moral principle, pornography can be considered as immoral for us and it may not immoral for them. This moral principle determines the nature of moral actions, a certain acts that are usually consider morally bad may be morally permissible under certain circumstances or exceptional cases. Pornography may not be morally bad in all cases, as nudity of the human body may be considered artistic. In some countries, the display of vulgar and indecent materials is not considered immoral by itself, Hence, pornography in the net is tolerated. In other countries, pornography is considered a violation of decency and morality, and hence, frowned upon. This notion of relative morality also explains why in some countries censorship is legal while in other countries censorship is frowned upon.
Ethical Absolutism
Ethical absolutism asserts that there should be fixed or rigid factors in evaluating actions and must follow a consistent ethical standard. Pornography is morally bad if we talk about the natural law, Plato likewise regards natural law as a discipline that every human being must observed and adhere to go that the individual and the common good may be realized or attained. From these precepts, the principles of law are derived. The laws that govern computing may very well be considered as being derived from natural law. This is because computer abuse, piracy, plagiarism and pornography are human actions that violate righteousness, justice, equity and fairness.
Ethical Egoism & Ethical Altruism
Ethical egoism is one of the principles of morality that usually use to support certain ethical judgment. In the pornography issues, ethical egoism shows the feeling of satisfaction of the one who made it maybe he/she feels of being superior over others in terms of new ideas, presentation, showing skills and other field of expertise. On the other hand, altruism also determined the pleasure felt by the person doing it but more pleasure for the other. In pornography issues, the one who make it maybe feels that he/she give a contribution to the computer users who look for a pornography site sample.


FINALIST THEORIES
Utilitarianism
According to Jonh Stuart Mill’s, Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds actions which bring happiness considered morally right while those actions that inhibit happiness are considered morally wrong. Those who practicing pornography and they are enjoying while doing and watching it, their actions promotes happiness and pleasure and the consequences of that action are more favorable for them.
Categorical Imperatives
In this ethical theory, that an act is good not because of certain consequences that occur in its performance or on the basis of its end-result but, because of the willingness that accompanies the act. The one who make pornography or a system or a kind of website which caused bad in our sight, some of them are just doing their job and maybe it is because their talent or skills are in-demand in that field, so,, in that way even they did not foresee its en and as long as they give their best and willingness for a good result.
Aristotle’s Nocomachean Ethics
This another ethical theory from Aristotle focused on virtue of ethics. The computer user, as an agent of morality should be in complete control of his/her actions through the use of reason. This means that he/she should be able to act in accord with that which is virtuous without succumbing to influence outside of his/her will. When a computer user does something, he/she does so because he/she willed it. A firm disposition is also called for in order that the agent’s act would not be influence by anything other than his/her own reason. This means, that every situation happen to us it is because we allow it to happen. In connection with the pornography issues, our motive shows in the outcome of our work. Every person that contribute to make this pornography issues spread out has a cleared motive of getting the attentions of very computer user and through the response of the other computer users this pornography issues become a widespread problem especially in our country.

2. If you were granted indefinite and unrestricted access to the Internet, would you be interested to join a chat group that holds no barrier as far as free expression and communication are concerned? Why? Why not?

Chat groups can easily degenerate into a dubious educational tool. One only needs to tune in to a typical chat room to quickly appreciate the banality of the conversation. An important exception is that chat groups can serve as a "live" means of communication during war or large-scale natural disaster when regular news channels may be delayed in reporting information. You may wish to consider developing chat group capability for such events. (Of course, at such times chat groups may do more to contribute to the rapid spread of rumors than much else.) Even if I have given a lot of time to access directly to the internet and to have a chat in a group, still I am not interested because this can be troublesome in an educational setting because real-time conversation can often stray into banal chatter. There is also the risk of becoming a participant in a chat group that is "inappropriate."

MODULE 9 Activity

1. Choose one of the social justice issues in computing discussed above and find out to what extent it is an issue in the Philippines. Then find out what is being done to address it in specific countries. For example, in the case of the digital divide due to language differences, Soriano reports the adoption of the Unicode Standard, “a character coding system designed to support the word wide interchange, processing, and display of the written tests of the diverse languages of the modern world.” Developed extended and promoted by a non- profit organization, the Unicode Consortium (www.unicode.org), the Unicode Standard makes international communication easier.

3. CURRENT SITUATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
3.18 Access to Information and Communication

A Philippine Dictionary of Signs was developed in 1999, including VHS tapes, which is used to standardize sign language for Filipinos with hearing impairments. The Dictionary was funded through a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and is circulated in schools and organizations of the deaf and other interest parties. Two national television programs in the country provide sign language interpretation, which include interpreters during national events, conferences and meetings. Closed caption television sets and films with subtitles for people with hearing impairments as well as telecommunication devices (TDD) for people with hearing impairments are available. . Interregional Seminar and Demonstration Workshop on Accessible Information and Communication Technologies for Persons with Disabilities. The workshop was held in March 2003 with the theme "Empowering Persons with Disabilities through IT". The event was funded by UN-DESA in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, the United Nations Development Program and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Two documents were produced as a result of the workshop, "Manila Declaration on Accessible ICT" and Manila Accessible ICT Design Recommendations". Resources for the Blind Inc., (RBI) is a non profit charitable organization that was formed in 1988 to provide a full spectrum of services to blind people throughout the Philippines. Dr. Lown, Director of RBI, translated the Bible into a Tagalog (Filipino) Braille version along with other dialects as well as cassette and large print Bibles. According to the RBI, a half million Filipinos are blind and that the conventional methods of producing Braille materials were not adequate to meet the required needs. Through RBI's Philippine Braille Technology Center, computer technology using small computer driven Braille embossers, has aided in the production of up to one million pages of Braille a year. Through this technology and RBI's resources, they produce two magazines, Insight and Double Yum, which are the only Braille periodicals produced in the Philippines for the blind. Insight Magazine is written for blind adults and is sent out six times a year to 600 Braille subscribers and 100 cassette tape subscribers. Each issue contains tips and techniques for living with blindness, news about the latest technology for the blind, and articles about blind people who are gainfully employed. Each issue contains scripture portions in English, Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiliganyon, and Ilocano dialects. In order to encourage Braille reading skills among children, RBI produces a biweekly Braille childrens reader titled Double Yum. This magazine is sent out to 600 blind children and to classes for blind children around the country. Additionally, RBI provides approximately 5,000 Braille textbooks each year to students. According to RBI, specialized equipment and materials needed by blind people are not readily available in the Philippines. To help meet the needs, RBI imports many items needed by the blind including Braille writing slates, white mobility canes, talking watches, talking calculators, talking blood pressure kits, talking thermometers, Braille typewriters, and special software and hardware to allow a blind person use a computer.

SOURCE: http://www.apcdproject.org/countryprofile/philippines/situation.html

2. Is denial of access in computing a social justice issue? Discuss your answer.

Denial of access in computing can be considered as social injustice issue because this will give interruption of the legal users. From the given definition of denial of access it shows unethical way of using services and from the given definition of social justice, it refers to the promotion of the welfare of the people, in that situation social justice is in reverse of denial of access. It is expected that all staff or members of the company or institution will use resources and facilities in accordance with laws and company or institution rules. Failure to fulfill these responsibilities may lead to the cancellation of your computer account(s), other disciplinary action by the company or institution referral to legal and law enforcement agencies. In that situation social injustice involved. Creating a computer malfunction or interruption of operation or any means of harmful access will lead to denial of access.