The exam covers three sections of material:
Basic Ethical Reasoning, Property and Intellectual Property, Computer Crime and Civil Disobedience
For Basic Ethical Reasoning, be prepared to:
- Reproduce and explain basic argument forms from the different ethical perspectives (Consequentialism and Deontology)
- Produce and evaluate sample arguments from the different ethical perspectives
- Explain key features of the different ethical perspectives (e.g. impartiality, flexibility, consistency, etc.)
- Know arguments against moral subjectivism and relativism.
For Property and IP:
- Supply a moral justification for property and intellectual property.
- Make a distinction between legal and moral justifications for IP
- Be familiar with the different forms of legal IP protection (Patent, Copyright, Trademark, and Trade Secrecy)
- Produce and evaluate arguments for the status of software under one or more of the categories of IP protection above.
- Explain the concept of “fair use” of copyrighted material
- Be aware of issues in current IP law (for example, the DMCA).
- Discuss whether computing offers new ethical challenges for IP or simply old challenges to a different degree
For Computer Crime and Civil Disobediance
- Know the accepted criteria for civil disobediance
- Supply and evaluate moral arguments for civil disobediance
- Construct moral arguments that favor or condemn sample acts of “hacktivism”