Doug Johnson

Raising Good Citizens for a Virtual World: How Do We Help Our Children be Safe and Ethical When Using the Internet? A Families Connect Course for AASL, 2000

Introduction
Lesson One
Lesson Two 
Lesson Three
Lesson Four 
Lesson Five

Property
This lesson presents scenarios in which young people must ask: Do my actions respect the property of others and am I taking the correct steps to keep my property safe? Discuss each of the following scenarios with your child:

Scenario 1
Jerry borrows Ben’s game disks for Monster Truck RallyII and installs them on his home computer. He says he will erase the game if he does not like it, or will buy the game for himself if he likes it.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Students need to know that computer software is protected by copyright law. It is unlawful, as well as unethical, to make copies of computer programs without permission or payment of the producer of those programs. It also needs to be understood that when purchasing software, one is usually only purchasing the right to use the software. The ownership of the code that comprises the program stays with the producer. This means that one cannot alter the program or resell it. The vast majority of software licenses require that one copy of a program be purchased for each computer on which it is to be run. And no, the inability to pay for software is not a justification for illegal copying anymore than the inability to pay for a book is any justification for shoplifting it from a bookstore.

Scenario 2
Betty downloads a solitaire card game from the Internet that is “shareware.” It can be legally used for 30 days and then Betty must either delete it from her computer or send its author a fee. Betty has been using the game for 30 days.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Software falls into three main types: freeware (that which can be used without payment indefinitely); shareware (that which can be use for a trial period and then must either be erased or purchased); and commercial software (that which must be purchased before use). Understanding the concept of shareware is a good way of helping students understand why purchasing software benefits them. The profits that software producers make are partially used to fund the development of more software. If the profit motive is lost from software creation, less software and fewer improvements are likely to be made.

Scenario 3
Cindy finds some good information about plant growth nutrients for her science fair project on a CD-ROM reference title that came with her home computer. She uses the copy function of the computer to take an entire paragraph from the CD-ROM article and pastes it directly into her report. She also forgets write down the title of the article and the CD-ROM from which it was taken. When she writes her report, she does not cite the source in her bibliography.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Plagiarism is easier than ever, thanks to the computer. Students need to understand when and how to cite sources in both print and electronic formats.

An interesting discussion of one such incident can be found at: Is It Plagiarism? http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/is-it-plagiarism.html

Scenario 4
Albert finds a site on the Internet that is a repository of old term papers. He downloads one on ancient Greece, changes the title, and submits it as his own.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Academic work is increasingly becoming available for sale or downloading from the Internet. Online services now offer help in writing “personal” essays requested for college admissions offices. How are such services alike or unlike ghostwritten biographies and speeches of celebrities and politicians?

One way teachers can help defeat the use of such sites is to ask for papers that call for original thoughts and conclusions. Does your childâs teacher ask for papers that call for creativity? A discussion of this issue can be found in “Copy, Cut, Plagiarize,” Technology Connections, January 1996 http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/copy-paste-plagiarize.html

Scenario 5
Fahad is upset with his friend George. He finds the data disk on which George has been storing his essays and erases it.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Does deleting a file or erasing a disk constitute the destruction of property? After all the magnetic medium of the hard drive or the plastic case of the computer disk is left intact. All that has changed is the polarization of some magnetic particles bonded to a circle of plastic. Students need to learn to treat intellectual property, existing only in virtual spaces, the same way they would treat physical property and that the theft or destruction of such property is unethical (and unlawful).

Scenario 6
Lucy uses the family computer to download a program from the Internet that has instructions on how to make paper airplanes. After using the program, the computer does not seem to work very well, crashing often and randomly destroying files. Lucy thinks she might have downloaded a virus along with the paper airplane program.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Students need to know about the unethical practices of others and how protect themselves from those practices. Computer viruses, often infecting a computer through downloading software from the Internet, can be detected and destroyed by virus protection programs. Students need to know how to find, install, and use these programs.

One resource that gives recent information about computer viruses is at F-Secure Corporation http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info/

Scenario 7
Henry’s friend Hank has discovered the password to the school’s student information system. Because Hank feels a teacher has unfairly given him a poor grade, he plans to create a “bomb” which will erase all the information on the office computer.

    What is the property?
    Who is its owner?
    What danger or discomfort might the unethical action cause?
    Is there a parallel in the physical world to this scenario?
    Can you think of other incidents that would fall into this category?

Citizens (including students) have the ethical responsibility for reporting wrongdoing, including destruction of property. And while there are lots of reasons why students are reluctant to do so, as parents we need to express our beliefs that reporting unethical or criminal behavior serves a social purpose. Younger students often believe that school property is owned by the teachers and administrators, and are surprised to learn that it their parents’ taxes or fees that must be used to pay for vandalized or stolen school resources.

Discussion Questions

• How does paying for software benefit the user as well as the creator?
• When does someone “own” an idea? Should the cure for a serious disease be considered property?
• Can student or employee time be considered property? Can using time at school or work for personal activities be considered property theft?
• Many warnings about viruses are hoaxes. How can you determine which warnings should be taken seriously and which should be ignored?
• When should a student report the wrongdoing of another student?