Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Discover how developments in information technology are raising new ethical debates

Information and computer ethics has emerged as an important area of philosophical and social theorizing, combining conceptual, meta-ethical, normative, and applied elements. As a result, academic interest in this area has increased dramatically, particularly in computer science, philosophy, and communications departments; business schools; information and library schools; and law schools.

The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics responds to this growing interest with twenty-seven chapters that address both traditional and current issues in information and computer ethics research. It is organized into six parts:
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Foundational Issues and Methodological Frameworks
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Theoretical Issues Affecting Property, Privacy, Anonymity, and Security
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Professional Issues and the Information-Related Professions
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Responsibility Issues and Risk Assessment
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Regulatory Issues and Challenges
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Access and Equity Issues

Each chapter, written by one or more of the most influential ethicists in their fields of expertise, explains and evaluates the central positions and arguments on the respective issues. Chapters end with a bibliography that identifies the most important supplementary books and papers available on the topic.

This handbook provides an accessible, yet sophisticated, overview of the most important issues we face in information and computer ethics today. It is an ideal supplemental text for advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in information and computer ethics, and is also of interest to readers who are involved in library science, computer science, or philosophy.

Foreword by Deborah G. Johnson.
Preface.

Contributors.

Introduction by Kenneth Einar Himma and Herman T. Tavani.

PART 1: FOUNDATIONAL ISSUES AND METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS.

1. Foundations of Information Ethics (Luciano Floridi).

2. Milestones in the History of Information Ethics (Terrell Ward Bynum).

3. Moral Methodology and Information Technology (Jeroen van den Hoven).

4. Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems (Batya Friedman, Peter H. Kahn, and Alan Borning).

PART 2: THEORETICAL ISSUES AFFECTING PROPERTY, PRIVACY, ANONYMITY, AND SECURITY.

5. Personality-Based, Rule Utilitarian, and Lockean Justifications.

of Intellectual Property (Adam D. Moore).

6. Informational Privacy: Concepts, Theories, and Controversies (Herman T. Tavani).

7. Online Anonymity (Kathleen A. Wallace).

8. Ethical Issues Involving Computer Security: Hacking, Hacktivism, and Counterhacking (Kenneth Einar Himma).

PART 3: PROFESSIONAL ISSUES AND THE INFORMATION-RELATED PROFESSIONS.

9. Information Ethics and the Library Profession (Kay Mathiesen and Don Fallis).

10. Ethical Interest in Free and Open Source Software (Frances S. Grodzinsky and Marty J. Wolf).

11. Internet Research Ethics: The Field and its Critical Issues (Elizabeth A. Buchanan and Charles Ess).

12. Health Information Technology: Challenges in Ethics, Science, .

and Uncertainty (Kenneth W. Goodman).

13. Ethical Issues of Information and Business: A Critical Perspective (Bernd Carsten Stahl).

PART 4: RESPONSIBILITY ISSUES AND RISK ASSESSMENT.

14. Responsibilities for Information on the Internet (Anton Vedder).

15. Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation (Philip Brey).

16. Genetic Information: Epistemological and Ethical Issues (Antonio Marturano).

17. The Ethics of Cyber Conflict (Dorothy E. Denning).

18. A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk Assessment - A SoDIS Inspection (Don Gotterbarn, Tony Clear, and Choon-Tuck Kwan).

PART 5: REGULATORY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES.

19. Regulation and Governance on the Internet (John Weckert and Yeslam Al-Saggaf).

20. Information Overload (David Levy).

21. Email Spam (Keith Miller and James H. Moor).

22. Plagiarism: What, Why, and If (John Snapper).

23. Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing (Richard A. Spinello).

PART 6: ACCESS AND EQUITY ISSUES.

24. Censorship and Access to Information (Kay Mathiesen).

25. The Gender Agenda in (Information and) Computer Ethics Alison Adam).

26. The Digital Divide: Prospects for the Future (Maria Canellopoulou-Botti and Kenneth Einar Himma).

27. Intercultural Information Ethics (Rafael Capurro).


Kenneth Einar HIMMA, PhD, JD, is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Seattle Pacific University. His research interests include legal philosophy, applied ethics, information ethics, and computer ethics. Dr. Himma has authored more than 100 scholarly articles, encyclopedia entries, book reviews, and op-ed newspaper pieces, as well as a book, Internet Security: Hacking, Counterhacking, and Society.

Herman T. Tavani, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy at Rivier College (New Hampshire) and President of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT). He also holds appointments as a visiting lecturer at Boston College and as a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health. Professor Tavani is the author, editor, or coeditor of five books, including Ethics and Technology (Wiley), now in its second edition.