IFSM 304

Ethical dilemma: Installing adobe pro on users PC’s knowing that the company is out of licenses for the software.

Stakeholders  Publicity  Respect for persons  Veracity

The tech  The tech has the duty to take actions based on ethical standards that must be known and recognized by all who are involved.  The Tech has the duty to honor others, their rights, and their responsibilities. Showing respect others implies that we do not treat them as a mere means to our end.  The tech has the duty to tell the truth

The org. that is purchasing the software. The org. that is purchasing the software has the duty to take actions based on ethical standards that must be known and recognized by all who are involved.  The org. that is purchasing the software has the duty to honor others, their rights, and their responsibilities. Showing respect others implies that we do not treat them as a mere means to our end.  They assume the tech that they hire is going to tell the truth.

The company that made the software.  The company that made the software should be notified and confiscated for the illegal uses of their software. The company that made the software should be honored by others, their rights, and their responsibilities. Showing respect others implies that we do not treat them as a mere means to our end.  They assume the company will tell the truth and not break their licenses agreement

4      

I chose to write about this dilemma because I worked at a helpdesk where techs where told to install software on computers but they didn’t have any more available licenses for the software. When the configuration management group found out about this they made the techs uninstall the programs and put the users on a list to get licenses for the software. I was told that” Many employees don’t realize that corporations are bound by the copyright laws, just like everyone else. Such conduct exposes the company (and possibly the persons involved) to liability for copyright infringement. CITATION Ant14 l 1033 (Anti-Piracy, 2014)”

I chose the three principles that I used because I thought that each principle had a connection to the dilemma at hand. I chose Publicity because I felt that all parties involved should know about what was going on. I chose respect for persons because this was incident and it could be fixed as long as each party had respect for each other. I also chose veracity because telling the truth is always the best choice made. “The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that lying was always morally wrong. CITATION Maz l 1033 (Mazur, n.d.)”

While researching this ethical dilemma, I have come to find that Software piracy is a major problem and could come with major penalties. The penalties for a company having more software programs loaded onto a company’s computer than the company has licenses to use. “Although software usage is governed by a contractual license, the software industry generally relies on the stronger protections afforded by the federal Copyright Act of 1976. The act provides stiff penalties for copyright infringement—up to $150,000 per violation if the infringement is willful CITATION Sco14 l 1033 (Scott, 2014)” To prevent this from happening companies need to keep track of all the licenses and prepare work and routinely have audits and paper work for all the software.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Anti-Piracy. (2014). Retrieved from SIIA SOFTWARE & INFORMATION INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: https://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171:faq&catid=162:anti-piracy-articles&Itemid=129

Mazur, T. (n.d.). Lying . Retrieved from Santa Clara University: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/lying.html

Scott, R. (2014). Surviving Software Audits. Retrieved from law firms.