Re: ethics, morals in documentation?

Subject: Re: ethics, morals in documentation?
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2001 11:06:56 -0700

Tracy Boyington wrote:

> This particular situation wouldn't be a moral dilemma for me, since I don't care what consenting adults do or who buys pictures of them doing it.

A year ago, I would have said the same thing. Now, I'd say that you
can't be sure until you find yourself in the situation.

Last spring, I interviewed at a company that represented itself as
an on-line gaming company. During the interview, I heard a lot about
Ultima on-line and similar ventures.

Then I did a little digging. I found that the company was a
subsidiary of a rather infamous company that was heavily involved
with illegal gambling and pornography. The on-line gaming was really
developing software for off shore gambling in the Cayman Islands,
and, even though the company was technically separated from the
parent company's pornography efforts, I heard from reliable sources
that the porn makers shared facilities with the company.

I've never cared for gambling, and the social and moral effects of
porn strike me as dangerous, but, at the same time, I've never been
much for imposing my morality on others, either.

However, much to my surprise, I found that I was a Puritan. I didn't
want to be involved with enterprises that took advantage of human
weakness. And, except for this circumstance, I probably never would
have learned that I was far less laissez-faire about these things
than I thought.

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com

"I've tuned up my fiddle, I've rosined my bow,
I've sung of the clans and the clear crystal fountains,
I can tell you the roads and the miles to Dundee,
>From the back of Alaska's wild mountains."
-Brian McNeill, Battlefield Band, "The Roving Dies Hard"

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