Ethics for the Information Age.

Ethics for the Information Age seems especially germane having recently witnessed both the opening of the House of Representatives for the 104th US Congress and the interview with Alvin and Heidi Toffler during which they discussed Speaker Gingrich's grasp of the Third Wave.

Information technology (IT) for electronic submission of legislation and storage on the Internet, for the House Information System, etc. is a given; IT has already made great impact and will continue to advance bringing with it new opportunities and problems. This book goes beyond technology to address issues regarding appropriate roles and uses of personal and societal information in a civilized society.

Students of management information systems, computer science, philosophy, law and business comprise the target audience of the author. Two brief chapters introducing ethical thought and the integration of ethics with IT are followed by one presenting a broad view of the societal impact of IT. Individual chapters are dedicated to privacy and computer crime.

In addition to discussion of ethical issues for IT professionals, the chapter on ethical codes for professional organizations includes the codes of a number of such organizations. Discussion of legal issues include summaries of major federal legislation in the areas of privacy and access, copyright protection, and security, beginning with the Freedom of Information Act of 1966. Laws in other countries and state laws against computer crimes are also discussed. Two separate chapters examine ethics in education and the workplace and the issues of intellectual property and software defect liability. Finally, ethical concerns related to emerging technologies for the future (e.g., electronic democracy) are introduced.

Oz claims in the foreword to cover every area of ethical concern on the basis of "extensive research of the of the media news stories, the academic and trade literature, and ...