Illegal but Ethical

[jim.halfpenny at gmail.com (Jim Halfpenny)]

One important point is that illegal could relate to civil matters as well as
criminal ones so the sense of the word illegal strongly related to the
context. As for examples, how about whistle-blowing on a serious business
irregularity in direct violation of a non-disclosure agreement or other
contract? Here you have a potential lose-lose situation where the course of
action or inaction could be illegal.

Jim

2009/10/4 Adrian Crenshaw <irongeek at irongeek.com>

> Hi all,
>     I was listening to the Thomas Wilhelm interview, and the ethics part
> got my attention. I recently got in academic trouble at school because I
> said something can be illegal but ethical, and in the teacher's mind I would
> not let it go. I think I brought it up three times, in context, and it took
> about 3 min of class time. I used the classic "Are there Jews in your
> basement", and lying about it if there are,  asked in Nazi Germany as and
> example where something is illegal, but ethical. I was slamed later because
> this is "extreme" and "not business related" and in the complaint I was
> slammed as "anti-law" and "anti-ethics". Is seems in the tech field, there
> are many examples of items that a business related, illegal but ethical. A
> few examples:
>
> Cleanflicks buying DVDs, making edited copies to rent, and keeping the
> originals in storage (DMCA violation)
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CleanFlicks
>
> Posting prpitary data that shows voting machines to be vulnerable (DMCA
> again)
> http://www.eff.org/cases/online-policy-group-v-diebold
>
> I might be able to tie this in as well
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
>
> Any other examples you can think of with items that are business related,
> illegal but ethical? Got a good reverse engenering example?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Adrian
>
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