Chapter 14 - Managing Technological Challenges

CHAPTER 14
MANAGING TECHNOLOGICAL
CHALLENGES

INTRODUCTION

Technology fosters change and more change. Technological change has raised
ethical and social questions of privacy, security, ownership, health, and safety. What are
the implications of this fast-paced change on our society and those who live in it?
Moreover, who is responsible for determining how much technological change should
occur or how fast things should change? Should technology be controlled, and if so, who
should be in charge of managing technology and the challenges it poses for humans and
cultures in our global community?

PREVIEW CASE

Privacy

Are businesses or governments winning the battle in the management of technology,

particularly the challenges of maintaining the privacy and safety of those using
technology? Does the significant increase in technology-based crimes justify stronger
government controls and more intrusion in our technology-laden lives? Where should
the line be drawn, separating personal privacy from the government’s need to protect the
citizenry?

Preview Case
The introductory case examples from Japan and the
United Kingdom should provide examples for students to
wrestle with the questions presented above. Where
should the line be drawn regarding issues of privacy and
safety?
CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. BUSINESSES PROTECTING PRIVACY

Teaching Tip: Privacy
Throughout the chapter there are many controversial
issues, such as employee privacy, that are excellent
topics for student debate or discussion. Should
employees have access to employees’ email or Internet
surfing history? Should businesses adopt privacy
policies for employees or customers or both, and if so,
how should these policies be communicated to the

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affected stakeholder? Many of these issues could be

combined with coverage of the stakeholder chapters later
in the book.

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Teaching Tip: Ethical Implications of Technology

Video
Tom Bearden hosts a discussion of the ethical
implications of radio frequency identification tags
(RFIDs), used to – among other things – track inventory.
Tags embedded in their clothing, electronic devices, or
identification papers individuals carry can potentially be
“read” by a variety of readers. What are the implications
for privacy and civil liberties?
* The video segment is from the Public Broadcasting Services’s
“News Hour with Jim Lehrer” and is available on the Instructor’s
Resource Manual DVD that accompanies the textbook, available
upon request from the publisher.
II. THE MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SECURITY

Teaching Tip: Computer Hackers

This is another controversial issue ripe for debate or
discussion. Should computer hackers be punished as
intellectual robbers or trespassers, or should all
information be freely available to the public? What
information should be protected, if any, and who should
be responsible for information security?
A. The Chief Information Officer

Teaching Tip: Chief Information Officer

It might be helpful for students to invite a local
company’s chief information officer to class to talk on
the issues she or he faces each day on the job. What new
challenges have emerged for this company executive?
What solutions to knotty problems have been achieved?

III. INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY

Teaching Tip: Adult-oriented Web sites

This is another controversial topic ripe for debate or
discussion. Where do you draw the line regarding free
access to Internet information – what should be restricted
and how should these restrictions be enforced? Should
Web site hosts be ordered to protect children from adult-
oriented material? If so, how can this be effectively
managed? Is restricting children’s access to adult-

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oriented information on the Internet justified at the cost

of prohibiting adults from accessing this information?

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IV. PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

A. Software Piracy

B. Pirating Copyrighted Music

Teaching Tip: Downloading Music Video

Terence Smith reports on the legality and ethics of
downloading music and video off the Internet. How can
the courts best protect copyrights without stifling the
innovation that has generated new technologies such as
MP3 players and TiVo? The segment includes interviews
with the CEO of StreamCast Networks, the maker of
Morpheus software; the CEO of the Motion Picture
Association of America; and a professor who comments
on university policies to block illegal downloading by
students.
* The video segment is from the Public Broadcasting Services’s
“News Hour with Jim Lehrer” and is available on the Instructor’s
Resource Manual DVD that accompanies the textbook, available
upon request from the publisher.

C. Piracy of Movies on CDs and DVDs

Teaching Tip: The Practice of Piracy

It is unfortunately likely that some or many students in
class have pirated software, music, CDs or DVDs or
most students probably know someone who has done
these acts. A debate or role playing exercise focusing on
why these practices occur and why they should not occur
(ethically) might be a good in-class exercise.
V. MANAGING SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

Teaching Tip: Scientific Breakthroughs

Scientific breakthroughs bring numerous controversial
questions worthy of debate or discussion. Have
scientists simply gone too far with biological advances?
If so, who should set the restrictions and how? If not,
how will we know when they have, if ever? Should
government, or businesses, or society, or the churches set
the limits on technological advances in the areas of
tissues engineering and cloning?

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A. Human Genome

B. Biotechnology and Stem-Cell Research

C. Cloning

D. Bioterrorism

E. Genetically Engineered Foods

Teaching Tip: Genetically Modified Foods
The debate or discussion over GM-foods has already
entered public debate. Students could research the latest
information on whether GM-foods are safe or harmful. If
harmful, do these harms outweigh the important and
economically beneficial agricultural advances due to
genetically engineered foods? What role has government
played in this public debate?
GETTING STARTED

KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Evaluating the initiatives businesses have taken to protect the privacy of their
stakeholders.

Businesses have addressed many privacy issues at work and in e-commerce by

developing privacy policies and by sharing information and technology through voluntary
industry initiatives.

2. Assessing how secure is information in a free access, information society given the
vulnerability to hackers, viruses, and computer worms.

Acts of sabotage by computer hackers threaten companies’ control of information,

causing businesses to develop elaborate information security systems to more quickly
detect hacking efforts and to patch systems targeted by viruses or worms.

3. Understanding how businesses manage technological change.

Businesses have entrusted the management of technology to their chief information or

privacy officers. For issues that go beyond the business organization and affect society in
general, it is unclear whether businesses, social groups, or governments–or some
combination of these groups–should manage technology and its change.

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4. Analyzing threats and safeguards taken due to the moral challenges found in the
Internet pornography industry.

Company and industry initiatives have been joined by governmental action to better
shield children from the growing and lucrative Internet pornography industry.

5. Assessing violations of intellectual property and how business and government

attempt to prevent these illegal actions.

Threats of software, music, and movie piracy challenge businesses’ ownership of their
property, calling for industry and international governmental responses to these ethical
violations.

6. Recognizing the ethical and social challenges that arise due to technological
breakthroughs in science and medicine.

Fears associated with human genetic research, stem-cell research, human cloning, and
genetically modified foods have raised objections from social activist and consumer
groups. Businesses have attempted to address these fears and dispel false concerns, while
seeking to promote the benefits of scientific technological breakthroughs.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS USED IN THE CHAPTER
bioterrorism, 313

chief information office (CIO), 304

computer hackers, 302

Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 306

genetic engineering, 314

genetically modified food, 314

human genome, 309

intellectual property, 305

privacy policy, 298

software piracy, 305

stem-cell research, 309

streaming, 307

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tissue engineering, 309

INTERNET RESOURCES

www.privacyalliance.com Online Privacy Alliance

www.truste.org TRUSTe
www.bsa.org Business Alliance Software
www.doegenomes.org Human Genome Project
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cloning.htmlMedline Plus – Cloning, U.S. National
Library of Medicine and The National
Institutes of Health
www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo Monsanto’s biotechnology webpage

DISCUSSION CASE

WE’RE SIMPLY DOWNLOADING MUSIC: SO WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

Teaching Tip: Discussion Case Video

Terence Smith reports on the legality and ethics of
downloading music and video off the Internet. How can
the courts best protect copyrights without stifling the
innovation that has generated new technologies such as
MP3 players and TiVo? The segment includes interviews
with the CEO of StreamCast Networks, the maker of
Morpheus software; the CEO of the Motion Picture
Association of America; and a professor who comments
on university policies to block illegal downloading by
students.
* The video segment is from the Public Broadcasting Services’s
“News Hour with Jim Lehrer” and is available on the Instructor’s
Resource Manual DVD that accompanies the textbook, available
upon request from the publisher.

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Discussion Questions

1. Was it appropriate for the RIAA to repeatedly file lawsuits against those who
were downloading music? If not, what else could the association have done to stem
declining industry sales, which were partially due to free file-swapping of music?

RIAA felt that they were at turning point in their battle against what they termed
illegal downloading, or pirating, of music. Industry sales were down 26 percent over the
past four years and a dramatic effort was needed to halt this situation. Since this case
was written, the RIAA has filed additional lawsuits against other music pirates,
indicating that the RIAA felt that this first effort was warranted and justified subsequent
efforts at combating music piracy.

2. Since other information and entertainment are available for free off the Internet,
should music be available at no charge as well? Or, is it simply wrong to download
copyrighted music?

Other information freely available on the Internet generally is not protected by

copyrights, as music is. While some information is freely available, the musicians that
created the product and the recording industry that produced it feel that they deserve a
fair price for their work.

People are not permitted to reproduce as their own another’s published writings
or use another’s patented invention. But, is downloading music also wrong? Some
would argue that listening to music is not the same as trying to profit from another’s
writings or invention, and they may be right. The debate over the availability of music
off the Internet and the use of this music for individual’s enjoyment will undoubtedly rage
on. A parallel issue may be the controversy regarding the access to copyrighted movies
off the Internet, which is a current issue in the press.

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3. Where do you draw the line permitting free information off the Internet, but try
to respect the artists’ intellectual property and rights to royalties from their
creations?

Consistent with past judicial rulings, such as the Napster case, the line should be
drawn while focusing on the intent of the producers of the product – the musicians and
recording companies. If they chose to provide information to the Internet free and
without expectation of repayment for its use, then this information is truly free to those
who want it. If, however, they provide information (that is, music) with the expectation
that they will be compensated for their work (such as indicated by a signed recording
contract), then the music is not free and if others use or enjoy their work they should be
paid a just amount.

As an employee, my company typically owns my intellectual property or creations

(often there is a signed agreement to this effect), but if I invent something on my own that
others can use or enjoy, I expect to make money off of my invention. This is why people
patent their inventions or copyright their work.

4. As long as technology enables people to download music, at greater anonymity,

should people continue to download music files until they are caught?

Students may want to refer back to the ethics chapters to review the stages of
moral development or various ethics theories to guide their response to this question.
Rarely would one argue that the only reason to not do something is if you will get caught.
Underlying this issue is the question: Is it wrong to act this way? Is stealing wrong only
if you get caught? No.

However, people do act based on the probability of detection or getting caught.

People often exceed the speed limit while driving until they see a law enforcement officer
and then they significantly slow down to the posted speed limit. The threat of getting
caught is admittedly a deterrent for some people.

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