The proliferation of data over the past one and a half decades is astounding. Made possible by the rapid growth trends of computer technology, data continues to be amassed at astounding rates, exabytes per year[1] by some estimations. From digital file sharing to databases of phone calls, medical records, and internet searches, data records are everywhere. The issue continues in the increasingly popular online world of social networking. Massive global user bases coupled with vast amounts of data make social networking sites far from immune to prevailing ethical issues. Codes of ethics have been developed by both the IEEE and the ACM that give guidelines for the ethical design, and use of software. Some of the most prevalent ethical issues with these systems include user privacy and copyright infringement.
In 1999 Shawn Fanning wrote a program which “proceeded to redefine the internet, the music industry and the way we all think about intellectual property.”[2] This program, named Napster, was a centralized music file sharing service. When there was no great way to find music online, Napster provided the answer. The software rapidly became popular, attracting approximately 27 million[3] users worldwide before its demise. What caused its demise? The fact that copyrighted music was being freely distributed using this program. United States copyright law clearly “protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.”[4] Therefore, since Napster clearly allowed users to violate copyright law, the program goes against both the ACM code of ethics and the IEEE code of ethics. If the program had been used acceptably, to distribute music tracks entered into the public domain, this would not have been a problem. The music industry quickly caught up to this music “sharing” and began filing copyright infringement lawsuits and approximately two years after the service began, it was shut down.