Business ethics questions – background in business ethics needed.
1. Explain Cooley’s argument in “Genetically Modified Organisms and Business Duties.” What would Cooley say about the activities of Monsanto and related in the case study “Monsanto’s Round-Up Ready Wheat”? In general, do you agree or disagree with Cooley? Why, or why not?
2. In “Intellectual Property and the Information Age,” Richard T. De George begins by examining the case of Napster and the practice of sharing digital music over the Internet. He concludes by arguing that determining whether an action with regard to copyright protection is moral or immoral will depend on the balancing of competing conceptions and justifications for copyright protection. Using the positions that De George lays out, examine the case with which De George begins. Do you believe that this activity is morally justified or immoral? Why?
3. In “Internet Content Providers and Complicity in Human Rights Abuse,” Jeffery D. Smith argues that while ICPs may be complicit in human rights abuse, they may strive to minimize their complicity. Do you believe that the strategies he imagines are sufficient to absolve ICPs of any moral wrongdoing that arises from their complicity in these abuses? Why, or why not? If not, what do you believe that ICPs should do?
4. In “Privacy,” Deborah G. Johnson presents arguments designed to show that the greater capacity of computers to gather and store information has the capacity to both benefit and harm the social good. In what ways do these enhanced capacities have the potential to benefit and harm the social good? Which do you find stronger? Is there a way to embrace the benefits of computers without risking the harms to the social good she envisions?
