U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects; New York Times, 7/30/15

James Risen, New York Times; U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects:

"The board of the American Psychological Association plans to recommend a tough ethics policy that would prohibit psychologists from involvement in all national security interrogations, potentially creating a new obstacle to the Obama administration’s efforts to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects outside of the traditional criminal justice system.

The board of the of the A.P.A., the nation’s largest professional organization for psychologists, is expected to recommend that members approve the ban at its annual meeting in Toronto next week, according to two members, Nadine Kaslow and Susan H. McDaniel, the group’s president-elect. The board’s proposal would make it a violation of the association’s ethical policies for psychologists to play a role in national security interrogations involving any military or intelligence personnel, even the noncoercive interrogations now conducted by the Obama administration. The board’s proposal must be voted on and approved by the members’ council to become a policy."

Killer of Cecil the Lion Finds Out That He Is a Target Now, of Internet Vigilantism; New York Times, 7/29/15

Christina Capecchi and Katie Rogers, New York Times; Killer of Cecil the Lion Finds Out That He Is a Target Now, of Internet Vigilantism:

"In the hours since Dr. Walter J. Palmer apologized for killing the lion, he has gone from a dentist and longtime hunting enthusiast to a villain at the center of a firestorm over the ethics of big-game trophy hunting...

Erin Flior, who specializes in crisis management at the public relations firm Levick, said that frequent cases of widespread social media outrage had made digital crisis and reputation management a growing specialty. She recalled cases in which clients had to move or consider changing their names.

“The fact that it crosses my desk at all means it happens too much, in my opinion,” Ms. Flior said. “It really tends to be instances where a very educated, tech-savvy crowd has jumped on board that those kind of instances get taken to that level where personal information is being released.”"

Death of Zimbabwe’s Best-Loved Lion Ignites Debate on Sport Hunting; National Geographic, 7/21/15

Adam Cruise, National Geographic; Death of Zimbabwe’s Best-Loved Lion Ignites Debate on Sport Hunting:

"Legal or not, the death of Cecil, who has been a wildlife icon in the area for years, has been condemned both locally and internationally. Many people have taken to online media to express their horror and denuciation of the hunt. The condemnation comes in the immediate wake of the controversy surrounding Hwange’s parks authorities capturing and exporting 23 baby elephants to China.

Cecil’s death has also caused deep concern among many conservationists and has re-ignited the ethics surrounding lion trophy hunting, especially near protected areas.

In a press release, Beks Ndlovo, CEO of the African Bush Camps group of companies, a private, owner-run African-based safari company, stated: “In my personal capacity… I strongly object and vehemently disagree with the legalising and practice of hunting lions in any given area. I will personally be encouraging Zimbabwe National Parks and engaging with Government Officials to stop the killing of lions and with immediate effect.”"

New Hampshire university's language guide launches war of words; Reuters, 7/29/15

Reuters; New Hampshire university's language guide launches war of words:

"The university's president, Mark Huddleston, said on Wednesday that the guide was not school policy.

"I am troubled by many things in the language guide, especially the suggestion that the use of the term 'American' is misplaced or offensive," Huddleston said in a statement. "The only UNH policy on speech is that it is free and unfettered on our campuses. It is ironic that what was probably a well-meaning effort to be 'sensitive' proves offensive to many people, myself included."

According to its authors, the guide seeks to "invite inclusive excellence" at the university.

"This guide is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed," states the guide, which is posted on the university’s website."

First student to plead in Chinese test-taking scandal deported; New York Times, 7/29/15

Torsten Ove, New York Times; First student to plead in Chinese test-taking scandal deported:

"The lead defendant in a scheme by Chinese students to cheat on university entrance tests pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to his role as an organizer, and a second member of the conspiracy was deported to China.

Han Tong, 24, who gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 by having someone in China take an English test for him, admitted that he either took entrance tests for others or found impostors to take the tests, each time using counterfeit passports manufactured in China and sent to him in Oakland.

He pleaded to conspiracy, making and using a forged passport and wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti."

Why Ethics Codes Fail; Inside Higher Ed, 7/21/15

Laura Stark, Inside Higher Ed; Why Ethics Codes Fail:

"Last week, an independent investigation of the American Psychological Association found that several of its leaders aided the U.S. Department of Defense’s controversial enhanced interrogation program by loosing constraints on military psychologists. It was another bombshell in the ongoing saga of the U.S. war on terror in which psychologists have long served as foot soldiers. Now, it appears, psychologists were among its instigators, too.

Leaders of the APA used the profession’s ethics policy to promote unethical activity, rather than to curb it. How? Between 2000 and 2008, APA leaders changed their ethics policy to match the unethical activities that some psychologists wanted to carry out -- and thus make potential torture appear ethical...

The APA’s current ethics mess is a problem inherent to its method of setting professional ethics policy and a problem that faces professional organizations more broadly. Professions’ codes of ethics are made to seem anonymous, dropped into the world by some higher moral authority. But ethics codes have authors. In the long term, the APA’s problems will not be solved by repeating the same process that empowers a select elite to write ethics policy, then removes their connection to it.

All ethics codes have authors who work to erase the appearance of their influence. Personal interests are inevitable, if not unmanageable, and it may be best for the APA -- and other professional groups -- to keep the link between an ethics policy and its authors. Take a new lesson from the Hippocratic oath by observing its name. The APA should make its ethics policies like most other papers that scientists write: give the code of ethics a byline."

The Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress: Challenges for information practice and information policy; First Monday, 7/6/15

Michael Zimmer, First Monday; The Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress: Challenges for information practice and information policy:

"Abstract

In April 2010, the U.S. Library of Congress and the popular micro-blogging company Twitter announced that every public tweet, since Twitter’s inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library and made available to researchers. The Library of Congress’ planned digital archive of all public tweets holds great promise for the research community, yet, over five years since its announcement, the archive remains unavailable. This paper explores the challenges faced by the Library that have prevented the timely realization of this valuable archive, divided into two categories: challenges involving practice, such as how to organize the tweets, how to provide useful means of retrieval, how to physically store them; and challenges involving policy, such as the creation of access controls to the archive, whether any information should be censored or restricted, and the broader ethical considerations of the very existence of such an archive, especially privacy and user control."

U.S. Program Will Connect Public Housing Residents to Web; New York Times, 7/15/15

Dionne Searcey and Peter Baker, New York Times; U.S. Program Will Connect Public Housing Residents to Web:

"The program is an extension of the president’s ConnectED initiative, which was announced in 2013. It aimed to link 99 percent of the students from kindergarten through 12th grade to high-speed Internet in classrooms and libraries over the next five years.

The housing secretary, Julián Castro, in his first public speech in the role last year, cited expanding broadband access as a priority, mentioning how people lean against the windows outside a library in the Bronx in search of free Wi-Fi for their phones.

Mr. Castro on Wednesday also announced rules that would require new public housing and major renovations to include infrastructure to support broadband connections. He noted that while computers are not being provided to residents now, the agency is exploring opportunities with partners to do so. “We’re not just making the Internet more accessible, but more meaningful,” he said."

American Universities Are Failing at Ethics; Time, 7/17/15

James Keenan, Time; American Universities Are Failing at Ethics:

"In other forms of professional life, we have long recognized a strong connection between the lack of professional ethics in a particular institutional setting and the lack of an ethical consciousness in that culture.

I believe that the absence of professional ethics is evidence of and symptomatic of a culture disinterested in ethics. For instance, as we come out of the sexual abuse scandals that have ripped apart the churches, we see that the disinterest in professional ethical accountability of bishops and priests was sustained by the church’s clerical culture that was more attuned to advancement than it was to ethical responsibility and transparency.

A similar culture is part and parcel of the contemporary American university.

Simply put, the American university does not hold its employees to professional ethical standards because it has not created a culture of ethical consciousness and accountability at the university. This is in part because of the nature of the contemporary university and because it needs ethics.

The contemporary university functions not as an integrated, transparent community but as a medieval set of fiefdoms in which transparency and accountability are singularly to “the person upstairs”: that is, to the chair, the dean or a vice president. Faculty and administrators are not accountable to any colleague, but only to a higher administrator.

Moreover, this accountability is only one-directional. For all the compliance, accountability and collaborative models that university faculty teach in their ethics courses to physicians, nurses, managers and lawyers, the university itself remains averse to developing any true accountability structures."

CA College Student Challenges Graphic Novel Syllabus; Library Journal, 7/20/15

Anna Murphy, Library Journal; CA College Student Challenges Graphic Novel Syllabus:

"The administration at Crafton Hills College, a community college in Yucaipa, CA, recently denied a student’s request to remove what she considered objectionable material from a college course on graphic novels. After enrolling in the course and purchasing her books, Tara Schultz was surprised to learn that some of the titles included mature material. “I expected Batman and Robin, not pornography,” she told the Redland Daily Facts (RDF). The four books on the syllabus she found objectionable included: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin, 2006); Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1, by Brian Vaughan (Vertigo, 2003); The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll’s House, by Neil Gaiman (1990, DC Comics); and Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 2004)...

Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the American Library Association (ALA) Office of Intellectual Freedom feels that warnings regarding content unfairly influence readers. “Librarians have always had a concern with labeling that tends to prejudice a reader against a book,” she said. “We shouldn’t need labels that say something might be offensive because someone said so. Everyone is free to close a book at any time.”"

Surveillance Society: Who has the rights to your face?; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/13/15

Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Surveillance Society: Who has the rights to your face? :

"Facebook’s handling of your headshot is now the subject of class action lawsuits that pose the question: When someone turns your mug into data, are those digits theirs or yours?

Filed in April and May, the lawsuits claim that when Facebook started converting the geometry of your profile picture into what it calls “a unique number,” it broke a 2008 Illinois law giving residents certain rights when their biometric information is collected.

Facebook is disputing the claims, and fired its first legal salvos this month. That developing legal fight, plus the meltdown last month of a government effort to come up with standards for the use of facial recognition technology, suggests that the distances between your eyes, nose and mouth are hot battlegrounds in the privacy wars."

Facebook's video plan? Grow like hell, deal with copyright later; Forbes, 7/10/15

Jeff John Roberts, Forbes; Facebook's video plan? Grow like hell, deal with copyright later:

"The challenge of chasing down copyright infringers has led content owners, in general, to claim the safe harbor rules are too lax, and that platforms like YouTube should do more to take down unauthorized videos. Studios have filed a spate of lawsuits to argue that more websites should be liable under a “red flag” provision in the copyright law, which can strip a site’s legal immunity in the event they obviously should have known about the infringement, or if they are directly making money from it.

But so far those lawsuits, including a long-running one against YouTube, have not really changed websites’ responsibilities when it comes to copyright, according to Lothar Determann, a copyright lawyer with Baker & McKenzie in San Francisco. He added more broadly that the law’s larger goal of protecting tech platforms still applies, and courts will not order websites to conduct copyright investigations.

The freebooter issue for Facebook, then, appears to be less of a legal problem than a moral one. Video owners may come to blame Facebook – safe harbors notwithstanding – for using their content to get rich while flouting their copyright concerns. Such claims, whether fair or not, have dogged Google and YouTube for years, and led to legal and political headaches."

Internet access “not a necessity or human right,” says FCC Republican; ArsTechnica.com, 6/26/15

Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica.com; Internet access “not a necessity or human right,” says FCC Republican:

"Federal Communications Commission member Michael O’Rielly yesterday argued that "Internet access is not a necessity or human right" and called this one of the most important "principles for regulators to consider as it relates to the Internet and our broadband economy."...

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee says that Web access should be considered a human right.

"Access to the Web is now a human right," Berners-Lee said in a 2011 speech. "It's possible to live without the Web. It's not possible to live without water. But if you've got water, then the difference between somebody who is connected to the Web and is part of the information society, and someone who (is not) is growing bigger and bigger."

A United Nations report in 2011 said disconnecting people from the Internet is a human rights violation. Vint Cerf, who co-created the networking technology that made the Internet possible, wrote that Internet access is not a human right, arguing that "technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself... at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it.""

Machine ethics: The robot’s dilemma; Nature, 7/1/15

Boer Deng, Nature; Machine ethics: The robot’s dilemma:

"How ethical robots are built could have major consequences for the future of robotics, researchers say. Michael Fisher, a computer scientist at the University of Liverpool, UK, thinks that rule-bound systems could be reassuring to the public. “People are going to be scared of robots if they're not sure what it's doing,” he says. “But if we can analyse and prove the reasons for their actions, we are more likely to surmount that trust issue.” He is working with Winfield and others on a government-funded project to verify that the outcomes of ethical machine programs are always knowable.

By contrast, the machine-learning approach promises robots that can learn from experience, which could ultimately make them more flexible and useful than their more rigidly programmed counterparts. Many roboticists say that the best way forward will be a combination of approaches. “It's a bit like psychotherapy,” says Pereira. “You probably don't just use one theory.” The challenge — still unresolved — is to combine the approaches in a workable way."

Watering down of ethics code on county agenda Tuesday; Sun Sentinel, 6/5/15

Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel; Watering down of ethics code on county agenda Tuesday:

"Broward commissioners will order up Tuesday the ethics code they really wanted on their plates. And they'll ask for a free bottle of water with it.

They'll direct the county attorney's office to write a new ethics law they can vote on in the fall.

Looking at the list of potential changes, nearly all of them could be classified as weakening, loosening, or narrowing the code's effects.

For one thing, politicians finally would be able to accept that free bottle of water they talk about frequently. In fact, they could accept a $10 case of water from a lobbyist, under what's proposed below."

Adjusting to a World That Won’t Laugh With You; New York Times, 6/5/15

A.O. Scott, New York Times; Adjusting to a World That Won’t Laugh With You:

"It’s hard to ponder these issues without thinking about Charlie Hebdo. While the murder of editors and cartoonists is the kind of event that defeats comparison — a Tweetstorm of shaming is in no way similar to automatic-weapons fire — the aftermath of the January attack on that satirical magazine’s Paris offices has reignited longstanding quarrels in Europe and America about the limits of free expression and the ethics of humor. In the months following the killings, after the initial outpouring of horror and the international expressions of “Je suis Charlie” solidarity, attention turned to the content of the magazine itself, not only to cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed but also to what seemed to some to be a pattern of racist and anti-Muslim bigotry.

Nobody was excusing violence or suggesting that free speech be curtailed. But Charlie Hebdo found critics where it had also found champions, among the legions of Europeans and Americans who had long been content to ignore its existence. In a widely reported April lecture, Garry Trudeau, the creator of “Doonesbury” and as such the dean of American satirical cartoonists, took Charlie to task for “punching down,” for aiming its mockery at the vulnerable and the powerless, in particular France’s Muslims and immigrants. Mr. Trudeau’s remarks were echoed later in the spring when a group of writers, including Peter Carey and Francine Prose, boycotted a PEN gala at which the magazine’s surviving staff members were given an award for freedom of expression...

Does this mean we should shut up, and either insist that our comedy give no offense or that no one ever take any? That “It’s just a joke” or “You just didn’t get it” should end the discussion? Not at all. It just means that laughter is something we should all take seriously. And also that we should all lighten up."

The Court and Online Threats; New York Times, 6/1/15

Editorial Board, New York Times; The Court and Online Threats:

"If you post violent thoughts about someone on Facebook, does it matter what you intended to convey when you wrote the words?

In a 8-1 decision issued on Monday morning, the Supreme Court said yes.

If the government wants to criminally prosecute someone for his or her words, the court ruled, it must do more than show that a reasonable person would have interpreted those words as threats.

“Wrongdoing must be conscious to be criminal,” Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for a seven-member majority. In the age of the Internet, when anyone can post anything for the world to see, it was an important affirmation of the need to protect speech, and to require the government to meet a stricter legal standard when trying to punish people for their words alone."

Supreme Court Overturns Conviction in Online Threats Case, Citing Intent; New York Times, 6/1/15

Adam Liptak, New York Times; Supreme Court Overturns Conviction in Online Threats Case, Citing Intent:

"The Supreme Court on Monday made it harder to prosecute people for threats made on Facebook and other social media, reversing the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who directed brutally violent language against his estranged wife.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said prosecutors must do more than prove that reasonable people would view statements as threats. The defendant’s state of mind matters, the chief justice wrote, though he declined to say just where the legal line is drawn.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote for seven justices, grounding his opinion in criminal-law principles concerning intent rather than the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. The majority opinion was modest, even cryptic."

Fifa Ethics Chief Says Will Continue Work Following Blatter Exit; Reuters via New York Times, 6/2/15

Reuters via New York Times; Fifa Ethics Chief Says Will Continue Work Following Blatter Exit:

"The chief ethics investigator of FIFA said he would keep working at world soccer's governing body to secure compliance with its ethics code, after the organization's president Sepp Blatter announced he was stepping down.

"The (investigatory) chamber will continue its mandate along with the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee of consistently ensuring compliance with FIFA's Code of Ethics and will make this its highest priority, regardless of who is president," Cornel Borbely, FIFA's chief ethics investigator, said in a statement on Tuesday."

Polling’s Secrecy Problem; New York Times, 5/28/15

Nate Cohn, New York Times; Polling’s Secrecy Problem:

"The debunking of a recent academic paper on changing views about same-sex marriage has raised concerns about whether other political science research is being properly vetted and verified. But the scandal may actually point to vulnerabilities in a different field: public polls.

After all, the graduate student who wrote the paper on same-sex marriage, Michael LaCour, was called to account. Basic academic standards for transparency required him to disclose the information that ultimately empowered other researchers to cast doubt on his findings.

But even before the LaCour case, it was becoming obvious that a different group of public opinion researchers — public pollsters — adhere to much lower levels of transparency than academic social science does. Much of the polling world remains shielded from the kind of scrutiny that is necessary to identify and deter questionable practices."

Sepp Blatter: FIFA's 'few' corrupt officials must be 'discovered, punished'; CNN, 5/28/15

Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN; Sepp Blatter: FIFA's 'few' corrupt officials must be 'discovered, punished' :

"Amid calls for his dismissal Thursday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter blamed allegations of widespread corruption within soccer's governing body on "a few" and called for those involved to be punished as FIFA works to rebuild its reputation.

Blatter spoke at the opening of a FIFA World Congress that's expected to be like no other. Swiss authorities are investigating the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, while a U.S. investigation has led to the arrest of some of FIFA's leading officials on corruption charges, casting a shadow over the congress' 65th edition in Zurich, Switzerland, and a planned presidential election Friday.

"Let this be a turning point," Blatter said. "More needs to be done to make sure everyone in football acts responsibly and ethically.""

FCC Head Unveils Proposal to Narrow 'Digital Divide'; Associated Press via New York Times, 5/28/15

Associated Press via New York Times; FCC Head Unveils Proposal to Narrow 'Digital Divide' :

"The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing that the government agency expand a phone subsidy program for the poor to include Internet access.

The FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, has emphasized that Internet access is a critical component of modern life, key education, communication and finding a keeping a job.

With the net neutrality rules released earlier this year, the agency redefined broadband as a public utility, like the telephone, giving it stricter oversight on how online content gets to consumers. That triggered lawsuits from Internet service providers.

The proposal Thursday to expand the Lifeline phone program to Internet service aims to narrow the "digital divide" — those with access to the Internet and other modern technologies and those without."

New Orleans Library Foundation Board Members Resign in Funding Scandal; Library Journal, 5/26/15

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; New Orleans Library Foundation Board Members Resign in Funding Scandal:

"While Hammer’s report emphasized the fact that the money channeled to NOJO had originally been donated in support of NOPL, what is at issue is the conflict of interest engendered by Mayfield and Markham’s profiting as salaried employees of NOJO. “If this had in fact been the best use of the money,” explained Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor, “then what needed to happen is that the NOJO directors needed to resign from the library foundation board and then ask the independent library foundation board whether they thought that was the best use of library foundation money, and go from there.” She added, “It’s not that the project is inherently a bad idea.""

Should Authors Shun or Cooperate With Chinese Censors?; New York Times, 5/27/15

New York Times; Should Authors Shun or Cooperate With Chinese Censors? :

"A report by the PEN American Center, which found some books were expurgated by Chinese censors without the authors even knowing it, called on those who want their works published in the lucrative Chinese market to be vigilant, and recommended a set of principles in dealing with publishers.

But each author may approach the problem differently. How should Western authors and artists deal with Chinese government censorship? Accept or negotiate changes, or decline to have their work published at all?"

The University of Minnesota’s Medical Research Mess; New York Times, 5/26/15

Carl Elliott, New York Times; The University of Minnesota’s Medical Research Mess:

"These days, of course, medical research is not just a scholarly affair. It is also a global, multibillion-dollar business enterprise, powered by the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries. The ethical problem today is not merely that these corporations have plenty of money to grease the wheels of university research. It’s also that researchers themselves are often given powerful financial incentives to do unethical things: pressure vulnerable subjects to enroll in studies, fudge diagnoses to recruit otherwise ineligible subjects and keep subjects in studies even when they are doing poorly.

In what other potentially dangerous industry do we rely on an honor code to keep people safe? Imagine if inspectors never actually set foot in meatpacking plants or coal mines, but gave approvals based entirely on paperwork filled out by the owners.

With so much money at stake in drug research, research subjects need a full-blown regulatory system. I.R.B.s should be replaced with oversight bodies that are fully independent — both financially and institutionally — of the research they are overseeing. These bodies must have the staffing and the authority to monitor research on the ground. And they must have the power to punish researchers who break the rules and institutions that cover up wrongdoing."

Doubts About Study of Gay Canvassers Rattles the Field; New York Times, 5/25/15

Benedict Carey and Pam Belluck, New York Times; Doubts About Study of Gay Canvassers Rattles the Field:

"Critics said the intense competition by graduate students to be published in prestigious journals, weak oversight by academic advisers and the rush by journals to publish studies that will attract attention too often led to sloppy and even unethical research methods. The now disputed study was covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

“You don’t get a faculty position at Princeton by publishing something in the Journal Nobody-Ever-Heard-Of,” Dr. Oransky said. Is being lead author on a big study published in Science “enough to get a position in a prestigious university?” he asked, then answered: “They don’t care how well you taught. They don’t care about your peer reviews. They don’t care about your collegiality. They care about how many papers you publish in major journals.”

The details that have emerged about the flaws in the research have prompted heated debate among scientists and policy makers about how to reform the current system of review and publication. This is far from the first such case."

What’s Behind Big Science Frauds?; New York Times, 5/22/15

Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, New York Times; What’s Behind Big Science Frauds? :

"Science fetishizes the published paper as the ultimate marker of individual productivity. And it doubles down on that bias with a concept called “impact factor” — how likely the studies in a given journal are to be referenced by subsequent articles. The more “downstream” citations, the theory goes, the more impactful the original article.

Except for this: Journals with higher impact factors retract papers more often than those with lower impact factors. It’s not clear why. It could be that these prominent periodicals have more, and more careful, readers, who notice mistakes. But there’s another explanation: Scientists view high-profile journals as the pinnacle of success — and they’ll cut corners, or worse, for a shot at glory.

And while those top journals like to say that their peer reviewers are the most authoritative experts around, they seem to keep missing critical flaws that readers pick up days or even hours after publication — perhaps because journals rush peer reviewers so that authors will want to publish their supposedly groundbreaking work with them."

Pakistani Journalists Resign to Cut Ties to Axact, a Fake Diploma Company; New York Times, 5/23/15

Saba Imtiaz, New York Times; Pakistani Journalists Resign to Cut Ties to Axact, a Fake Diploma Company:

"Several senior journalists resigned from a developing Pakistani television network, Bol, on Saturday, in the latest fallout from a crisis engulfing the channel’s parent company, Axact, a software firm that profited immensely from international sales of fake diplomas."

Survey Roundup: Wall Street Still Lacking Sense of Ethics; Wall Street Journal, 5/22/15

Ben DiPietro, Wall Street Journal; Survey Roundup: Wall Street Still Lacking Sense of Ethics:

"Ethics? What’s That?: A survey of around 1,200 financial industry professionals by law firm Labaton Sucharow found 25% of respondents said they would use non-public information to make $10 million if there was no chance they would get arrested for insider trading. Of those who make $500,000 or more a year, 34% said they have witnessed or have first-hand knowledge of workplace wrongdoing, while 27% said they disagree with the statement the financial services industry puts the best interests of clients first.

“Despite the headline-making consequences of corporate misconduct, our survey reveals that attitudes toward corruption within the industry have not changed for the better,” the survey authors wrote. “There is no way to overlook the marked decline in ethics and the enormous dangers we face as a result, especially when considering the views of the most junior professionals in the business.”

Aware But Unknowing: A survey of 652 chief financial officers by Ernst & Young found while 66% said cybersecurity is a top priority for them, 44% said a lack of understanding of IT is a barrier to crafting an effective cyberdefense strategy."

Google Wins Copyright And Speech Case Over 'Innocence Of Muslims' Video; NPR, 5/18/15

Bill Chappell, NPR; Google Wins Copyright And Speech Case Over 'Innocence Of Muslims' Video:

"In a complicated legal battle that touches on questions of free speech, copyright law and personal safety, a federal appeals court has overturned an order that had forced the Google-owned YouTube to remove an anti-Muslim video from its website last year.

Both of the recent decisions about the controversial "Innocence Of Muslims" video originated with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year, a three-judge panel agreed with actress Cindy Lee Garcia's request to have the film taken down from YouTube on the basis of a copyright claim. But Monday, the full en banc court rejected Garcia's claim.

"The appeal teaches a simple lesson — a weak copyright claim cannot justify censorship in the guise of authorship," Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote in the court's opinion."

Super-scholars: MPAA offers $20,000 for academic research in copyright battle; Guardian, 5/7/15

Sam Thielman, Guardian; Super-scholars: MPAA offers $20,000 for academic research in copyright battle:

"If you’re an academic who loves conservative interpretations of copyright law, the MPAA might be willing to pay you enough to go see The Avengers about 1,500 times (not in 3D, though).

In an effort to “fill gaps in knowledge and contribute to a greater understanding of challenges facing the content industry”, the Motion Picture Association of America is available to fund academic research to the tune of $20,000 per successful proposal, according to guidelines released recently by the movie industry lobbying group.

An email from the Sony WikiLeaks hack, quoted by copyright news site TorrentFreak, had a fairly direct statement about the conference’s purpose from Sony global general counsel Steven B Fabrizio: “[T]he MPAA is launching a global research grant program both to solicit pro-copyright academic research papers and to identify pro-copyright scholars who we can cultivate for further public advocacy.”"

Justices’ Opinions Grow in Size, Accessibility and Testiness, Study Finds; New York Times, 5/4/15

Adam Liptak, New York Times; Justices’ Opinions Grow in Size, Accessibility and Testiness, Study Finds:

"The court used to be a more decorous institution. A new computer analysis of about 25,000 Supreme Court opinions from 1791 to 2008 identified three trends that have transformed the court’s tone. The justices’ opinions, the study found, have become longer, easier to understand — and grumpier.

The judicial-ethics decision was a good example of all three trends. It was simultaneously sprawling, accessible and testy...

The new study, to be published next year in the Washington University Law Review, is the work of Daniel Rockmore and Keith Carlson, computer scientists at Dartmouth College, and Michael A. Livermore, a law professor at the University of Virginia. It is part of a cottage industry of quantitative analysis of Supreme Court opinions using linguistic software.

The era of big data has yielded some uncontroversial findings about the Supreme Court."

Forget Bridgegate. New Jersey’s actually the most ethical state; Washington Post, 5/1/15

Nicholas Kusnetz, Washington Post; Forget Bridgegate. New Jersey’s actually the most ethical state:

"Until Bridgegate, the past decade had seen few corruption charges against state-level officials in New Jersey, and that may be no coincidence: The shame of the McGreevey scandals led the state to pass some of the nation’s strongest ethics and transparency laws in 2005. Those reforms even helped New Jersey earn the top rank, with a grade of B+, in the 2012 State Integrity Investigation, a national ranking of state government transparency and accountability by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International. That’s not to say the Garden State is squeaky clean, but by our most recent measure, it’s better than any other state in the nation."

Libraries help close the digital divide; Washington Post, 5/1/15

Stephan Barker, Washington Post; Libraries help close the digital divide:

"As a librarian in Prince George’s County, I often see people struggle on the wrong side of the digital divide.

The term “digital divide” describes the gap in our society between the computer haves and have-nots, between people who have apps on their smartphones to order lattes and those who have never sent an e-mail. The digital divide can seem to be a secondary issue to hunger, poverty, homelessness and long-term unemployment, but at the base of those problems are limited access to computers and a lack of computer skills...

Recent studies suggest that the digital illiteracy is not insignificant in scope. A study by the Census Bureau found that 21 percent of households report no Internet access, at home or elsewhere...

As a nation, we have to do more to make computers available to all people. While public libraries are one part of it, local librarians can’t do it all. The government should increase grants to schools, libraries and community centers, especially in low-income and economically depressed areas...

And public libraries must do a better job of promoting computers and digital literacy. The people in the 25 million households without Internet access may not know they can get online at their local library. Books are important, but computers are necessary. For people without Internet access at home, libraries fill the gap."

Library Associations Spearhead New Copyright Coalition; Library Journal, 4/30/15

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Library Associations Spearhead New Copyright Coalition:

"A group of technology companies, trade associations, and civil society organizations have joined forces to form Re:Create, a national coalition to advocate for balanced copyright policy. In the wake of recent proposals to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as constant advances in the field of knowledge creation, coalition members are calling for responsive copyright law that balances the interests of those who create information and products with those of users and innovators, providing robust exceptions as well as limitations to copyright law in order that it not limit new uses and technologies.

Particular attention will be paid to the concept of fair use, considered a “safety valve” within U.S. copyright law and an important reinforcement of the First Amendment right to freedom of expression. This emphasis is particularly timely, as on April 29 register of copyrights Maria Pallante announced at a House Judiciary Committee hearing that the U.S. Copyright Office would launch a Fair Use Index—a searchable database listing court opinions pertaining to fair use...

Partners from all sectors will be working together toward Re:Create’s agenda: ALA, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Electronics Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Media Democracy Fund, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and the R Street Institute. According to its website, Re:Create will be “Supporting a Pro-Innovation, Pro-Creator, Pro-Consumer Copyright Agenda.”"

Five miles and a world away from Oval Office, Obama makes a rare visit; Washington Post, 4/30/15

Aaron C. Davis and ZSteven Mufson, Washington Post; Five miles and a world away from Oval Office, Obama makes a rare visit:

"At the Anacostia Neighborhood Library, Obama unveiled initiatives to promote reading among young people, including those in low-income households.

Obama announced that nine major publishing houses will donate digital access to about 10,000 of their popular titles, worth about $250 million, to low-income students. Also, the District and about 30 other towns and cities said they would introduce or press ahead with plans to put library cards in the hands of every student — giving lower-income students access to digital books in libraries even when they lack Internet access at home...

Next school year, every student ID card in the District will double as a library card, the officials said, giving children easier access to libraries and the growing online catalogue of digital books they can access at home."

When the Cyberbully Is You; New York Times, 4/29/15

Nick Bilton, New York Times; When the Cyberbully Is You:

"Why are people so mean on the Internet? It’s a question we have been trying to answer for more than a decade, but the matter seems to be reaching a cultural boiling point.

Listen to episode No. 545 of “This American Life,” entitled “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS,” about the pain people can cause online. Watch Monica Lewinsky’s TED talk, “The Price of Shame,” in which she pleads that “public shaming as a blood sport has to stop.” Read the new book by Jon Ronson, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” chronicling people whose lives have been obliterated by Twitter mobs. And listen to Louis CK, the comedian who recently quit Twitter, saying, “It didn’t make me feel good.”

Sure, the topic of cyberbullying is not new, but it feels different this time. The debate is happening everywhere: on radio shows, movies, books, talks, TV shows, blogs, book reviews and especially on social media.

“I think this conversation has been going on for awhile, but it’s getting this particular kind of attention now because it’s coming to the fore that anyone can be a victim of that kind of shaming,” said Jacqui Shine, a writer in Chicago who has written about online shaming and minorities."

Legislators Introduce Student Digital Privacy Bill; New York Times, 4/29/15

Natasha Singer, New York Times; Legislators Introduce Student Digital Privacy Bill:

"Months after President Obama proposed to strengthen digital privacy protection for students, two legislators on Wednesday introduced a comprehensive bill in Congress intended to accomplish that goal.

Titled the Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act of 2015, the bill would prohibit operators of websites, apps and other online services for kindergartners through 12th graders from knowingly selling students’ personal information to third parties; from using or disclosing students’ personal information to tailor advertising to them; and from creating personal profiles of students unless it is for a school-related purpose.

The bill would give parents access to information held about their children and allow them to correct it; to delete information about their children that schools do not need to retain; and to download any material their children have created."

America Needs to Figure Out the Ethics of Gene Editing Now; Wired, 4/23/15

Nick Stockton, Wired; America Needs to Figure Out the Ethics of Gene Editing Now:

"In an international first, researchers in China have reported doing experiments that involve editing the genome of a human embryo. Ever since scientists developed the ability to cut and splice DNA, they have worried over the safety and ethical implications of applying those techniques to the human genome. Now, though the reported work was preliminary and not completely successful, researchers will have to contend with a challenging set of questions about this newly-opened genetic frontier...

Within the past few months, several groups of scientists around the world have called varying levels of caution1 on just this type of research—calling for no more human embryo modification. They’re worried about all the science-fiction problems you’d imagine: The technology has the potential to erase genetic diseases, but it could also be used to make designer humans. And this kind of genome editing is on what’s called the “germ line,” which is to say, the edits get passed along to subsequent generations.

WIRED spoke to many of the people who called for moratoriums in two of world’s top scientific journals, to see what they thought about this Chinese research, and what it means for prioritizing the national discussion on the ethics of germline editing."

Supreme Court ethics bill takes aim at justices’ ‘dubious’ behavior; Forbes, 4/24/15

Claire Zillman, Forbes; Supreme Court ethics bill takes aim at justices’ ‘dubious’ behavior:

"Every judge in America must abide by a code of ethics, except for the nine justices that make up the nation’s highest court."

The Supreme Court has no official ethics rules, which means the justices are free to engage in political activity, speak at fundraising events, or become a member of a club that discriminates based on race, sex, or religion, if they so choose.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Congresswoman Louis Slaughter, a Democrat from New York, want that to change. On Thursday, they introduced a bill that calls on the high court to adopt a code of ethics.

“There is absolutely no reason why Supreme Court Justices shouldn’t be subject to the same code of conduct as all other federal judges,” Murphy said in a statement. “This bill will make the court more accountable and more transparent, and will help guarantee the integrity of our country’s highest court.”"

Once Comcast’s Deal Shifted to a Focus on Broadband, Its Ambitions Were Sunk; New York Times, 4/23/15

Jonathan Mahler, New York Times; Once Comcast’s Deal Shifted to a Focus on Broadband, Its Ambitions Were Sunk:

"If there was a single moment when the winds seemed to shift against Comcast, it came in November, when President Obama released a video on the White House website in which he spoke about the future of the Internet. For the first time, Mr. Obama, who had long offered support for the idea of net neutrality but had always stopped short of suggesting how it might be achieved, was unambiguously clear about what he wanted. He called on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt “the strongest possible rules” to regulate the Internet.

“For almost a century, our law has recognized that companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy over access into and out of your home or business,” he said. “It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information — whether a phone call or a packet of data.”...

It meant that a lot of Americans living in rural areas no longer had what qualified as high-speed Internet access — making Comcast’s already large share of the broadband market considerably larger."

Are city surveillance camera regulations being ignored?; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/14/15

Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Are city surveillance camera regulations being ignored? :

"A largely ignored privacy law that Bill Peduto pushed for when he was a Pittsburgh councilman should be enforced but loosened to allow police to look further back in time using surveillance footage, the mayor said last week.

The city’s Privacy Policy for Public Security Camera Systems, hashed out in 2008 between council and then-Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, set rules on where the city can surveil, who may see the footage and how long it should be stored. Mr. Peduto drove that legislation and became mayor 15 months ago — but confirmed Thursday that “we’re not following the rules right now.”"

Students Reportedly Organize 'Anti-Gay Day' at Pittsburgh-Area High School; People, 4/21/15

Kathy Ehrich Dowd, People; Students Reportedly Organize 'Anti-Gay Day' at Pittsburgh-Area High School:

"A group of students in a Pittsburgh-area high school are under scrutiny for reportedly organizing an "anti-gay day" at the school last week in response to the nationally observed "Day of Silence," which supports the LGBT community.

According to WPXI, a group of students at McGuffey High School in Claysville, Pennsylvania, were encouraging people to wear flannel shirts and write "Anti-Gay" on their hands late last week.

The students apparently organized themselves just after the school's Gay-Straight Alliance arranged for students to take part in the "Day of Silence," a national event organized by the national Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools."

Faculty Rallies to Support University of Oregon Archivist; Library Journal, 4/16/15

Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Faculty Rallies to Support University of Oregon Archivist:

"More than 100 faculty members at the University of Oregon (UO) have signed a letter to the university administration supporting archivist James Fox, who has been informed that his contract will not be renewed in June. Fox, along with digital archivist Kira Homo, is at the center of a controversy involving the release of some 22,000 pages of unfiltered UO presidential archives to professor of economics Bill Harbaugh in November 2014."

Ford’s ‘Right Way’ for Ethics and Compliance; Wall Street Journal, 4/21/15

Ben DiPietro, Wall Street Journal; Ford’s ‘Right Way’ for Ethics and Compliance:

"Raphael Richmond, Ford Motor Co.’s global director of compliance, has progressed from defending the company in court to working on its compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission rules to overseeing compliance for the company’s 187,000 employees worldwide. She talks to Risk & Compliance Journal about how the company instills ethics and compliance–“The Right Way”–throughout its workforce.

What is ‘The Right Way’ and how does the new ‘Right Way’ app change the way the company spreads compliance?

Ms. Richmond: Our global brand promise is ‘Go Further’–Ford Motor Co. will go further for our customers. When we thought about raising awareness within the company about compliance and ethics, we decided to build on that brand promise–go further the right way. We communicate around that idea with video messages from our CEO and other key executives.

We are relying on the app because we’ve got a global workforce with lots of different levels of experience with the company, in lots of different countries and markets. Most people carry their phones with them pretty constantly–our philosophy is less-effort compliance, let’s make it easy for you to do the right thing and more difficult for you to go outside the bounds and do something we wouldn’t approve of. I can train you over and over again on warning signals to look for for in business transactions, then what I need is for you to have this app handy so when you see warning signals you have a way to connect to get policy summaries that are bite-sized and easily digestible.

We’ve got information on gifts and favors, specific anti-bribery and anti-corruption advice, information on working together, and we even managed to include information about signs to look for with regard to human trafficking. The app launched [in March]. We’re aiming it at our workforce but also suppliers, dealers, anyone who might have an interest in seeing how we are doing things."

Privacy matters: The RadioShack outcry offers a consumer lesson; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/17/15

Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Privacy matters: The RadioShack outcry offers a consumer lesson:

In its recent bankruptcy filings, the troubled electronics retailer listed customer information among its assets up for auction, including 13 million email addresses and 65 million physical addresses in its database. But outrage ensued from attorneys general in 25 states, including Pennsylvania, so RadioShack changed course and announced it would exclude the data from this week’s sale of 1,700 stores to Standard General...

Stores increasingly gather information on their customers, either by asking for it outright at checkout or, more deviously, by offering a chance to win a prize if they evaluate their service online. Consumers do so willingly, but often without thinking of what happens to the data, or how it can multiply...

However, the legal quandaries presented in the era of Big Data are just beginning, as are the potential abuses."

Starving for Wisdom; New York Times, 4/16/15

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times; Starving for Wisdom:

"“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.”

That epigram from E.O. Wilson captures the dilemma of our era. Yet the solution of some folks is to disdain wisdom...

So, to answer the skeptics, here are my three reasons the humanities enrich our souls and sometimes even our pocketbooks as well...

My second reason: We need people conversant with the humanities to help reach wise public policy decisions, even about the sciences. Technology companies must constantly weigh ethical decisions: Where should Facebook set its privacy defaults, and should it tolerate glimpses of nudity? Should Twitter close accounts that seem sympathetic to terrorists? How should Google handle sex and violence, or defamatory articles?...

Likewise, when the President’s Council on Bioethics issued its report in 2002, “Human Cloning and Human Dignity,” it cited scientific journals but also Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” Even science depends upon the humanities to shape judgments about ethics, limits and values."

Don’t Keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Secret; New York Times, 4/14/15

Margot E. Kaminski, New York Times; Don’t Keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Secret:

"WHEN WikiLeaks recently released a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, critics and proponents of the deal resumed wrestling over its complicated contents. But a cover page of the leaked document points to a different problem: It announces that the draft text is classified by the United States government. Even if current negotiations over the trade agreement end with no deal, the draft chapter will still remain classified for four years as national security information. The initial version of an agreement projected by the government to affect millions of Americans will remain a secret until long after meaningful public debate is possible.

National security secrecy may be appropriate to protect us from our enemies; it should not be used to protect our politicians from us. For an administration that paints itself as dedicated to transparency and public input, the insistence on extensive secrecy in trade is disappointing and disingenuous. And the secrecy of trade negotiations does not just hide information from the public. It creates a funnel where powerful interests congregate, absent the checks, balances and necessary hurdles of the democratic process.

Free-trade agreements are not just about imports, tariffs or overseas jobs. Agreements bring complex national regulatory systems together, such as intellectual property law, with implications for free speech, privacy and public health."

New State of America’s Libraries Report finds shift in role of U.S. libraries; American Library Association (ALA), 4/12/15

Macey Morales, American Library Association (ALA); New State of America’s Libraries Report finds shift in role of U.S. libraries:

"A current analysis of book challenges recorded by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) from 2001 – 2013, shows that attempts to remove books by authors of color and books with themes about issues concerning communities of color are disproportionately challenged and banned. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness.

In 2014, the OIF received 311 reports regarding attempts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves. Eighty percent of the 2014 Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books reflect diverse authors and cultural content.

The 2014 Top Ten List of Frequently Challenged Books include..."

The Lost Language of Privacy; New York Times, 4/14/15

David Brooks, New York Times; The Lost Language of Privacy:

"Privacy is important to the development of full individuals because there has to be an interior zone within each person that other people don’t see. There has to be a zone where half-formed thoughts and delicate emotions can grow and evolve, without being exposed to the harsh glare of public judgment. There has to be a place where you can be free to develop ideas and convictions away from the pressure to conform. There has to be a spot where you are only yourself and can define yourself.

Privacy is important to families and friendships because there has to be a zone where you can be fully known. There has to be a private space where you can share your doubts and secrets and expose your weaknesses with the expectation that you will still be loved and forgiven and supported.

Privacy is important for communities because there has to be a space where people with common affiliations can develop bonds of affection and trust. There has to be a boundary between us and them. Within that boundary, you look out for each other; you rally to support each other; you cut each other some slack; you share fierce common loyalties.

All these concentric circles of privacy depend on some level of shrouding. They depend on some level of secrecy and awareness of the distinction between the inner privileged space and the outer exposed space. They depend on the understanding that what happens between us stays between us."