The use and spread of information technologies has been revolutionized and aided with the emergence and development of computer technologies. Electronic networks have allowed exchange of information but it has also come with new challenges. Rights and responsibilities in the way available information is used have given rise to some ethical dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas greatly affect businesses and especially small businesses that may not have big capital outlays and expertise to deal with ethical dilemmas in the utilization of technologies.
Computer crimes are illegal activities performed using a computer and they include theft, financial fraud, embezzlement, online harassment, virus infection and sabotage. Computer crimes affect all businesses that rely on the Internet to operate. A research report in 2000 by the FBI showed that out of all the business respondents, 85 percent had been victims of computer crime. These crimes compromise businesses and put them at a disadvantage; for example, the same FBI report shows that $265 million was lost to computer crime in 2000. Small businesses suffer more crimes because they cannot afford to implement security measures to stop the crimes, unlike the big companies. Small businesses are also reluctant to put in security measures because they believe that hackers will mainly target big companies.
Intellectual property is the creation of a business and includes the name, designs, inventions, images and symbols that a company uses. The success of a business largely depends on its assets. Information technology has enabled other businesses or companies to imitate or copy ideas from others and use it as their own. Some of these innovations are from the small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), but their efforts may not be fully utilized and they don't gain any financial benefits. This is because their inventions are unprotected and are normally taken by big companies who can afford to quickly commercialize the service or product. To avoid this, the SMEs should patent their innovations, thus, preventing competitors from imitating or copying their products.
Piracy is the illegal copying of software, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Software piracy violates copyright agreements. In 2002, 39 percent of business application software were pirated in the U.S. Software piracy can be costly, especially for corporations as it leads to significant losses. In 2002 alone, the software industry in the U.S. lost a total of $13 billion. There may be arguments that individual piracy may not be unethical as it leads to computer literacy and may even lead to future purchase of the software. However, the dilemma may come in when piracy is done on a large scale, as this will lead to serious losses for software manufacturers, especially those who are small-scale producers. Big companies like Microsoft can hardly feel the loss as they have a way to protect their software but small-scale businesses would greatly be affected as they are likely to incur big losses, which might eventually lead to the closure of the business. Small business firms' incentive to continue creating new software is also reduced as they fear their works would be pirated.
The use of information technology might require less deployment of man power and this has created ethical dilemmas by forcing some companies to reduce their workforce. Other companies give their employees more roles than required, thus, increasing work pressure. Forcing employees out of their jobs or giving them more work without added benefits is unethical. Those who have lost their jobs should be compensated, but this is difficult for most small-scale businesses because they lack sufficient resources and funds to do so.
- University of Colorado; Ethical Issues in Electronic Information Systems; Margaret Lynch; 1994
- Free Encyclopedia of Ecommerce: Computer Crime - Definitions, Types of Computer Crimes, Anti-cyber-crime Legislation, Enforcement Agencies, International Computer Crime
- World Intellectual Property Organization: Intellectual Property and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
- Information Ethics: Privacy and Intellectual Property; Lee Freeman et al.; 2005
- Libr.org; Teaching ethical issues in Information Technology: how and when; Ruth Rikowski