Information Technology Reference
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important than the public good. Using this logic, we no longer consider the
fact that Tim improved his technical knowledge and skills by developing and
releasing the antiworm.
That leaves us with three clauses remaining (1.01, 1.08, and 2.03). From the
point of view of clause 1.01, what Tim did was wrong. By attempting to hide his
identity, Tim refused to accept responsibility for launching the antiworm. He
has clearly violated the Code of Ethics in this regard.
When we evaluate Tim's action from the point of view of clause 1.08,
we must determine whether his efforts were directed to a “good cause.”
Certainly Tim's antiworm benefited the PCs it infected by removing a security
vulnerability. However, it harmed the Internet by consuming large amounts of
bandwidth, and it harmed system administrators who spent time battling it.
Because there were harmful as well as beneficial consequences, we cannot say
that Tim's efforts were directed to a completely good cause.
Finally, let's evaluate Tim's action from the point of view of clause 2.03. Even
though the antiworm was completely benevolent, Tim violated the property
rights of the PC owners, because the antiworm infected their PCs without
authorization. Hence Tim's release of the antiworm was wrong from the point
of view of this clause.
To summarize our analysis, Tim's release of the antiworm is clearly wrong
from the point of view of clauses 1.01 and 2.03. It is also hard to argue that he
satisfied the spirit of clause 1.08. We conclude that Tim's action violated the
Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.
SCENARIO
Acme Corporation licenses a sophisticated software package to many state,
county, and city governments. Government agencies have the choice of three
levels of service: the bronze level provides online support only; the silver level
adds phone support; and the gold level includes training classes taught on the
customer's site. The gold level of support costs $20,000 a year more than the
silver level.
Jean is one of the Acme employees who works in the support organization.
Mostly, Jean provides phone support, but from time to time he teaches an
on-site class. In fact, Jean created many of the instructional materials used in
these classes. Because of the recession, quite a few government agencies have
dropped from the gold level of support to the silver level, and some members of
Jean's training group have lost their jobs. Jean has a family to support, and he is
wondering if his position will soon be eliminated as well.
The state government of East Dakota is one of the many customers that no
longer pays Acme Corporation for on-site training. One day Jean gets a call from
Maria, who works for the East Dakota state agency using the software package.
Maria offers to pay Jean $5,000 plus expenses to run a five-day training class that
covers the same material as the official course taught by Acme.
