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Anonymous wonders: <<Yesterday myself and several other staff were called
into a meeting and asked if we'd have any
problems modifying our product for a company that can best be described as a
porn empire. Our managers were very earnest, explaining that we wouldn't be
exposed to objectionable content. We'd only have to 'wipe clean' any mention
of our company and product name. Then we would modify the interface and the
online help to suit the customer's needs.>>
Isn't it an interesting double standard that the company doesn't object to
making money off the porn, but does object to being associated with that
activity? Hmmm...
<<I've never been exposed to anything even remotely resembling an 'ethical
dilemma'.>>
Sure you have. Ever picked up a dollar bill on the street and not looked
around to see whether someone else was looking for it? Ever taken the last
cookie in the cookie jar? Ever voted Republican*? <gdrlh>
* Please don't start a political debate. If the Democrats had won, I'd have
used them as the example instead. Heck, I'd have used the Canadian liberal
party if anyone outside Canada had ever heard of them. <g>
<<However, I think that this qualifies as a 'moral issue'. Does it matter
who uses our documentation? Or what it's used to accomplish?>>
Of course it matters who uses your documentation, providing that you
consider protecting your product's users from undesirable consquences to be
an important ethical constraint. The most serious ethical issue is when said
use could have undesirable impacts on the users, whether physical or
financial injury or something less tangible such as damage to one's
reputation. The problem you raise is one that has bedeviled scientists and
engineers since the first caveman decided whether to teach the rest of the
clan how to sharpen a flint. ("Sure, this is a pretty cool tool for skinning
antelopes, but heck, couldn't Grog also use it to kill Grund faster?")
Outside of science, you'll see the same dilemma in the ongoing debate
between the National Rifle Association: do guns kill people, or do people
kill people? Again, don't let's start a heated political debate here; I'm
just illustrating that the ethics of the situation depend on which side of
the debate you're taking up, and opinions grow quite heated about the ethics
of the situation. That observation has broader implications: my reading of
ethics has taught me quite clearly that efforts by philosophers
notwithstanding, there's no such thing as a universal code of ethics, and
that everyone picks their own moral code (often but not always shaped
strongly by the prevailing ethics of their society or religion) and adapts
it as necessary to fit different situations.
<<Is it common for companies to give employees the choice between
participating and not participating in a project? If so, what are some of
the repercussions of not participating?>>
Not too common in my experience, but I've lived in a relatively small fish
pond. The consequences of not participating depend on the managers: some may
respect you and not let the decision affect your future, whereas others may
see it as letting them or the company down and may add you to their black
books.
<<I've already made my own decision to participate in this project.>>
Which, on the whole, strikes me as a reasonable decision. I tend to consider
pornography as far more ethically neutral than many other more serious
issues, though there are unquestionably abuses committed here too.
--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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