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Let's look at Internet Ethics. There are usually two main dimensions of any kind of research, but the Internet changes these markedly. All advocates of ethical behaviour in research agree that ethics policies should try to 1. protect an individual's privacy, and 2. ensure that research subjects are made fully aware of the procedures and outcomes of being studied. In terms of the first principle, private information is regarded as sacrosanct whereas public information is usually not constrained. RIGHT TO PRIVACY One major stumbling block to using existing ethical standards is that Cyberspace may be seen as being both private and public simultaneously. For example, electronic mail is one of the most private forms of communication on the 'net. But many organisations and universities state categorically that e-mail should not be viewed as private. On any computer network, there is at least one person who has root access to all users' files including e- mail. According to reliable sources, in Australia, some organisations monitor all employees' e-mail, check for any suspect words or phrases, and chastise anyone who repeatedly swears or uses foul language in company e- mail. In the real world we would not normally expect to be videotaped or observed in our everyday activities. However using the Usenet or e-mail automatically means that a copy of the messages is generated and recorded for posterity. If you contribute to any kind of listserv or newsgroup, or even submit a Web form, you can expect those messages to be recorded and/or archived for future reference on services such as DejaNews or AltaVista. INFORMED CONSENT Telling people exactly what is going to happen is one of the cornerstones of ethical behaviour. Whether it is a research study or an organisational decision, fully informing others about the nature of any intervention is the hallmark of good ethics. However, it has always been a problem, that if you tell people you are studying them, then their behaviour changes. This is especially true in Cyberspace where the mere mention of research can send 'netizens' into a frenzy of fear and loathing. I once asked my students to record Internet Relay Chat channels in order to complete a short student assignment. The recording of IRC "logs" is built into all the IRC programs freely available on the 'net. But when students announced that they were recording channel discussions, they were kicked off and banned from those channels. In fact the whole of my university domain was banned from joining certain IRC channels for a few days. I was asked to "cool it" with the assignment, lest I myself be totally banned from using the IRC network. Ethical behaviour was actively punished in this context. Robert Alun Jones, Professor of Sociology, History and Religious Studies, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in his excellent article in the journal, "Internet Research" declares that consent is predicated on the possibility that human subjects can be identified and/or harmed in any kind of intervention. In real life, people are identifiable and may suffer loss of dignity through participation in research. But in Cyberspace it is entirely up to the individual how much of their true identity they reveal. In Cyberspace, people may present themselves under a variety of identities, disguises and aliases. Much of the sense of freedom experienced by users of electronic communities is derived from the experience of slowly revealing themselves, and being able to fully control this process of self- disclosure. In some cases anonymity is the very thing that encourages uninhibited, contextualised behaviour, which is so interesting to researchers. How can an unidentifiable personality be harmed in a Web chat room? It would only be through self admission that the possibility of any kind of suffering might occur. Due to ignorance and incomplete understanding on part of lawyers and policy makers, it is probable that a simple translation of many existing ethical guidelines from the real world to the digital world is likely to result in creating more problems than it solves.
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Law and Internet Copyright Other Links Australian Copyright CouncilCopyright Information Sheets - For the most recent information, try this page and search the links and information sheets on a variety of copyright issues. For some good general introductory information, have a look at this page. For further information, do a Google search on 'Copyright and the Internet.'
The True Stella Awards Finally, there are a range of problems with enforcing ethical standards and behaviour. An example is shown by a website which promotes the so-called True Stella Awards as an example of the madness of public liability and litigation. Check out the link.
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