The Ethical and Social Issues of Information Technology: A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract-The present study is conducted among 283 students from University of Zabol to identify the harm and ethical and social issues in the field of information technology and to classify the immoral practices that students are doing in this field. First various important issues in the field of IT in the social and ethical areas are discussed. Then the cases considered as the most commonly used immoral activities, are selected for evaluation, and the participants ranked these activities according to the method presented in the questionnaire. These activities are examined and analyzed descriptively by SPSS program, reliability of the questionnaire is measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, Bartlett Test of Sphericity and KMO index and the validity of the results is verified using T-test and the results are ranked based on the first performance that happens frequently and the last performance that happens rarely or never. Finally, a set of strategies are presented for preventing ethical abuse in the field of Information Technology so that the challenges are reduced.

Examining Software Intellectual Property Rights

“…Similar to the abovementioned analysis and the data in Table 5, the violation of Trademarks is average among the members of the IEEE Association [9].…”

“…For the Trade Secrets violation index, the mean value of the scores is 3.53, which is 0.53 units up than the value of 3, and the significance of the t-test at the 95% confidence level (Significance P < 0.05) indicates that the mean response of the individuals to the Trade Secrets violation component has a significant difference with the value of 3 and according to the 95% confidence interval, the mean response rate in the community with a 95% probability is within the range of 3.26-4.32. Since the questionnaire options are defined so that the responses indicating the violation of the Trade Secrets of others tend to the large numbers (Smaller than 3) it is concluded that the violation of Trade Secrets is low among the members of the IEEE Association because firstly, the mean response of individuals is up than 3 (to the " Strongly agree " or nonviolation of Trade Secrets), and secondly, the mean value is significant compared to the number 3 (Significance P < 0.05) [9].…”

“…Using the Likert scale [8], one can assign score to each of these questions and finally rate their questions and indices. The final score of the questions and indices is also calculated by averaging each one [9]. Now, with this assessment way it is possible to compute the indices received by the combination of different questions by means of averaging the results.…”

“…This challenge also requires growth, education and cultural developments. Also, the infrastructures ness to be corrected and punishments should be considered for the violation of copyright [9].…”

“…In this regard, the government must enforce strict rules and even take heavy fines from offenders [9].…”