Legal & Ethical Questions in the PC Audio Age

John,

I am definitely NOT an unadulterated optimist or idealist. However, if I choose to act ethically that doesn't mean I am an idealist. I work as in-house counsel having left private practice because I saw SO much unethical behavior. But if I then use that experience as a justification to act unethically where does it end? I have to live with myself. I will continue to live by ethical standards and hope (but not necessarily expect) that others (certainly not all or even a majority) will respond in a like manner. NO, I am not advocating being a gullible doormat or easy prey for criminals or even people trying to take unfair advantage, just doing the next right thing.

John, I too have witnessed the same disparity you have with many upper level execs. However, if we DO respond with outrage and we DO prosecute high profile execs who act like Dennis Kozlowski, Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers (and I HOPE we prosecute the likes of Franklin Raines and James Johnson), then we begin to provide the only disincentive and deterrent that such greedy unethical jerks can relate to - the loss of their personal liberty!

Trust me John, I can EASILY get jaded and cynical with all the crime and fraud I see on a daily basis - but responding by becoming what I abhor is not only NOT the answer for me, I couldn't live with myself if I did - and YES, it might make me feel better initially but, since I have a conscience, that initial feeling would eventually be replaced by guilt and regret (and thankfully so since my experience is that the worst criminals have NO conscience).

Your last question is a good one: First, compliance with the LAW should be the MINIMUM standard of behavior - ethics is a higher standard. Stated alternatively, the law prescribes what we MUST do, ethics suggest what we SHOULD do! Thus, MOST of the time, if something is illegal it is necessarily unethical because ethics is a higher standard. However, on certain rarer occasions, JUST because something is LEGAL does not mean that disobeying the law is unethical - think Nazi Germany and apartheid. In these cases, the law allowed horrific behavior so disobeying the law in those cases was actually the ethical thing to do.

John, it does get difficult to continue to live by ethical tenets when you see so many people who do not apparently getting ahead - but I also DO see cases where justice DOES prevail and it does give me a modicum of hope and confirms that doing the next right thing isn't a naive way of life.

Kijanki,

LOL!! Can you send me a kosher ham? '-) On second thought - send it along with a few hundred CD-Rs of your favorite CDs!!!!!

On your second post, it is not the READING of the copyrighted work that is illegal, it is the unauthorized COPYING of the tangible medium. Then there are what are called "fair-use" exceptions to this rule - such as the right to make a copy of a CD if you already own it (assuming you paid for it originally). PLUS, libraries have paid for the license to have the books (and certain limited copying is permitted under the fair-use doctrine).

There are many more rules and a body of case law interpretting copyright laws and infringement. As such, since I am not an intellectual property attorney, I won't try to advise you much beyond what I teach in my Law & Ethics class as I'd be out of my area of exeprtise.

Frank

Frank- great posts. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on this most important subject.

Tell me, How do all you supremely ethical people rationalize spending huge sums of money (by the standards of most people in the world) on stereo gear and cds while most people don't get enough to eat?

I would say that being a glutton while people starve is a far more egregious ethical lapse than giving away a copy of a cd that you purchased, wouldn't you?

I can recommend some very ethical and effective charities if you don't know of any.

Frank

Thank you - I was mixing fair use with unauthorized copying. I know that RIAA was objecting at one point to making copy for yourself (thief=victim)

I know that copying CD from another person is illegal but at the age of compact cassette and Reel to Reel tape recorders copying was OK (I think) since tape manufacturers paid small fee per foot of the tape to go into fund/pool that was redistributed to artists based on amount of sold records. Now we have as well Music-CD-Rs that probably have similar provision to pay back to artists (a little more expensive than regular CD-Rs).

Everything is getting a little fuzzy since some performers sell only downloads. In addition there is digital radio, HDTV, Ipods etc.

I know that according to RIAA copying your own CD to Ipod is illegal (format change). It might be illegal but is it immoral (I paid for CD)?
RIAA is afraid that once CD gets transfered into unprotected MP4 it will spread to other Ipods. Tracking is also more difficult since there is no physical object (CD) to trace.