DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY - TRENT UNIVERSITY - PHIL - COIS 3370H - Cyberethics 2011-12 (FA)

Instructor: Michael Neumann Email: mneumann@trentu.ca    Office Location: TC WH 104
Office Hours: Wednesday 8:30-10:20am     Telephone: 7093    Secretary: Kathy Fife Email: kfife@trentu.ca
Office Location: LEC S 118.3     Telephone: (705) 748-1011 x 7166

Course Description:

A course which enables students to develop their own positions about the most important social
and moral problems raised by computer use and technologies, including the fragmentation of society
into computer 'haves' and 'have-nots', Internet censorship, pornography, intellectual property
rights, and software piracy.

Course Prerequisites: 7.0 university credits or permission of department chair. Excludes PHIL - COST 337, PHIL - COIS 337H.

Lecture/Tutorial Friday, 11:00am-12:50pm     Location: GCS106

Course Evaluation: 

Type of AssignmentWeightingDueDate
Essay504 November 2011
Exam50Exam period

The final exam with cover not only the readings but additional material presented in the lectures.
Optional seminar component. You may substitute an in-class seminar presentation for half of your essay grade. Topic and scheduling to be arranged between instructor and student. Since there is limited time available for presentations, this option will have to be on a first-come-first-served basis.

Required Texts:

There are no required texts to purchase. All required course material is available online, as indicated below. And electronic copy of this syllabus will be available and will make it easier to use the links.

Week-by-week schedule:

WEEK OF:     LECTURE TOPIC/READINGS/ASSIGNMENTS

Sept. 9     Introductory: What nerds don?t get about ethics.

Sept.16     Ethics and objectivity

Allen Wood, Relativism?

Sept.23     Ethical principles: 'values' and consequences.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, consequentialism
Gareth McCaughan, Utlitarianism
R.N.Johnson, "Primer on the elements and forms of utilitarianism"
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

Power

Sept.30     Domed cities' values: adaptive preference formation

Colborn, Ben, "Autonomy and Adaptive Preferences" Utilitas (2011), 23: 52-71. Also available here and here.

Oct. 7     censorship: rights and risks

Mill, On Liberty:
On Liberty, full text file available at: gutenberg.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation, free speech: http://www.eff.org/issues/free-speech

Oct. 14     privacy/surveillance

online exposure:

Emily Gould, Exposed

offline exposure:

Henry Porter, "Our Obsession with crime is crushing our freedoms"
The Spy Store

Oct. 21     digital politics?

activism:
Wikileaks cables search/
"WikiLeaks cable leak 'irresponsible', says Australia"
Guardian editorial: "WikiLeaks: the man and the idea
"WikiLeaks reveals all, media groups criticize move" (2 September 2011)

hacktivism:
"Anonymous Hackers Are Hypocrites, Not Hacktivists"
"Anonymous member leaves and slates hacktivist group"

Oct. 28     *********Reading Week: no class*********

Property

Nov. 4     theory of property - Nozick

From Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Nov. 11    filesharing

rights
Campbell Smith: "Anti-piracy law a reasonable way to protect artists' rights"
Chris Castle: "Artists'Rights are Human Rights"

consequences
The RIAA: What is Online Piracy?
Lily Allen: my message to the big stars who back piracy...
Orlowski: freetards: freetards

Nov. 18    knowledge and intellectual property

Shock, awe: British government agrees that copyright has gone too far
Open-Access Advocate Is Arrested for Huge Download

employer rights:
Employer Snooping: What Rights Do Workers Really Have?

Culture

Nov. 25    digital survival and virtual life

Kurzweil: The Singluarity is Near
Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D., Fantastic Voyage


Dec. 2 concluding review

University Policies

Academic Integrity:
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely serious academic offence and carries penalties varying from a 0 grade on an assignment to expulsion from the University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent University?s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself ? unfamiliarity with the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit Trent?s Academic Integrity website to learn more: www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.

Access to Instruction:
It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a student has a disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may need accommodations to succeed in this course, the student should contact the Disability Services Office, BH Suite 132, (705) 748-1281, disabilityservices@trentu.ca) as soon as possible. Complete text can be found under Access to Instruction in the Academic Calendar.