_INTERNET RULES_

Netiquette: Rules of Behavior on the Internet

The etiquette guidelines that govern behavior when communicating on the Internet have become known as netiquette. Netiquette covers not only rules of behavior during discussions but also guidelines that reflect the unique electronic nature of the medium. Netiquette usually is enforced by fellow users who are quick to point out infractions of netiquette rules.
Include a subject line. 

• Give a descriptive phrase in the subject line of the message header that tells the topic of the message (not just "Hi, there!").

Respect others' privacy.

• Do not quote or forward personal email without the original author's permission.

Use appropriate language:

• Avoid coarse, rough, or rude language.

• Observe good grammar and spelling.

Use appropriate emoticons (emotion icons) to help convey meaning.

•  Use "smiley's" or punctuation such as :-) to convey emotions. See website list of emoticons at http://netlingo.com/smiley.cfm and http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/smiley.html.

Use appropriate intensifiers to help convey meaning.

• Avoid "flaming" (online "screaming") or sentences typed in all caps.

• Use asterisks surrounding words to indicate italics used for emphasis (*at last*).

• Use words in brackets, such as (grin), to show a state of mind.

• Use common acronyms (e.g., LOL for "laugh out loud").

Topics in Computer Ethics

Computers in the Workplace

As a "universal tool" that can, in principle, perform almost any task, computers obviously pose a threat to jobs. Although they occasionally need repair, computers don't require sleep, they don't get tired, they don't go home ill or take time off for rest and relaxation. At the same time, computers are often far more efficient than humans in performing many tasks. Therefore, economic incentives to replace humans with computerized devices are very high. Indeed, in the industrialized world many workers already have been replaced by computerized devices -- bank tellers, auto workers, telephone operators, typists, graphic artists, security guards, assembly-line workers, and on and on. In addition, even professionals like medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants and psychologists are finding that computers can perform many of their traditional professional duties quite effectively.

Computer crime

In this era of computer "viruses" and international spying by "hackers" who are thousands of miles away, it is clear that computer security is a topic of concern in the field of Computer Ethics. The problem is not so much the physical security of the hardware (protecting it from theft, fire, flood, etc.), but rather "logical security", which Spafford, Heaphy and Ferbrache [Spafford, et al, 1989] divide into five aspects:

Integrity -- assuring that data and programs are not modified without proper authority
Unimpaired service
Consistency -- ensuring that the data and behavior we see today will be the same tomorrow
Controlling access to resources

Malicious kinds of software, or "programmed threats", provide a significant challenge to computer security. These include "viruses", which cannot run on their own, but rather are inserted into other computer programs; "worms" which can move from machine to machine across networks, and may have parts of themselves running on different machines; "Trojan horses" which appear to be one sort of program, but actually are doing damage behind the scenes; "logic bombs" which check for particular conditions and then execute when those conditions arise; and "bacteria" or "rabbits" which multiply rapidly and fill up the computer's memory.