Ethical Framework for IT Professionals

The professional conduct code sets out to bind every member with regard to professional conduct, consisting of values and ideals that guide professionals in their interactions with society and customers. The standard of conduct is based on national-level regulations, illustrating the application of a code of ethics to professional work. Priority, competence, honesty, social implications, and professional development are key aspects of this code, emphasizing the importance of ethical decision-making, respect for proprietary interests, and community welfare. Ultimately, the framework provides a moral duty for professionals to direct their actions towards overall community welfare, without negatively impacting it.

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Student Name
Institute Name

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of the situation using the Doing Ethics Technique...........................................................3
Q1. What's going on?...................................................................................................................3
Q2. What are the facts?................................................................................................................3
Q3. What are the issues?..............................................................................................................4
Q4. Who is affected?....................................................................................................................4
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?.......................................................................5
Q6. What can be done about it?...................................................................................................5
Q7. What are the options?............................................................................................................5
Q8. Which option is best - and why?...........................................................................................6
Analysis of the situation from the point of view of an ICT Professional using the ACS Code of
Ethics...............................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The process of Doing Ethics Techniques is based on the procedure for evaluating all kind of
ethical challenges in any situation. However, it is important to understand that it never actually
guarantees the best solution in the situation but it helps the organization to follow an ethical path.
It is also obvious that the tools used here are little vague in approach and there can be lack of
proper guidance (Wong, 2016). The report will have a discussion based on the understanding to
apply the tools in order to have a clear picture of ethical analysis. This will be understood with
the help of a case study.
Analysis of the situation using the Doing Ethics Technique
Q1. What's going on?
The case discusses about a database programmer, Jean who is facing problem in developing a
code in particular period of time and in order to solve the issue, she took a segment of code from
the colleagues without taking permission from the coworkers. The case addresses the issue of
intellectual property being used unfairly with giving proper credit for it. Particularly, it is
important to understand that one should not take credit of other’s work and ideas (Bently and
Sherman, 2014). The ethical based need will further be extended the right based property and
principle that is able to mention explicitly about the solution like copy rights, patents, agreement
in license and trade secrets.
Q2. What are the facts?
As per the case, a statistical programmer in database is constantly trying to form a statistical
program required by the company. There are number of programmer in the organization that are

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consistently motivated to actually effort to write the work and publish the complete algorithm in
journals (Drahos, 2016). However, Jean after working hard for month got stuck in specific part
of the program and because of the immense pressure from the manager; she is now left with
short deadline. While going through some help from coworkers’ work, she found a segment
which can be taken directly and used. She with acknowledging the work took the work and uses
it in her code.
Q3. What are the issues?
The issue in the case is clear example of intellectual property which can be referred or based on
ideas of the mind like invention or artistic work or designs and many more. IP is based on saving
the law, for instance, concepts like patents, trademark, copyright helps in making sure that
people earn some kind of identification of finance based advantages from it is invented or
created (Biagioli and Galison, 2014). It was important that Jean would have tried to strike a
proper balance between the interest of the innovator as well as wider or huge interest of public
along with IP system which aims on fosters a culture where creativity as well as innovation can
be encouraged.
Q4. Who is affected?
In this case, creativity and innovation got affected since Jean used the work without prior
permission or giving her proper credit for the same. IP based rights also impact all kind of
industry like medical, electronics, bio tech, energy and many more. Many people like Jean
assumes that pertaining to tech related innovation is easier (Hovenkamp and Carrier, 2016). But
at some kind of level, every organization has rights for IP that helps in saving and in the present
time there are just some companies that have established tangible assets like tools, production
facilities and many more.

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Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications?
In the present time of globalization where trade is conducted as per the agreement and stringent
terms and condition that consist of major and uniform level of safety of different intellectual
property based rights. Intellectual property rights can be defined as a socio-economic technique
that is able to develop a limited period of monopoly for the creator and also make sure the firm
asks for the prices for the innovation that are at times is way higher than the basic or marginal
cost of manufacturing based on the innovation (May, 2013). The ethical issue in the case is
associated with contemporary basis of many interdisciplinary as well as philosophical challenges
that says that intellectual property rights actually give rise to so many issues. The ethical issues
that surround all the intellectual property rights are some of the most important or pertinent way
when it is valuable social level for goods that are provided for intellectual property safety.
Q6. What can be done about it?
The best way or suggestion is to protect the work early, creatively and carefully. It is important
for the company here is start taking steps at an early stage to save the work of the employees in
order to execute the best ideas like taking or getting a state based on federal licenses or maybe
saving the production of a program, one must recognize all the aspects of the business and
product that can protected with the help of copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent (May,
2013). Every option in intellectual property needs different process to save them from bad or
unfair competition and this makes it important to consult a professional.
Q7. What are the options?
Following are some of the options taken up by the company so that actions taken by Jean cannot
be repeated in future: -
1. Patent the work of other people especially employees.

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2. It is important to act smart on intellectual property which requires learning on the basic of
type of IP.
3. Decrease in the cost performing the IP searches first and it is important to start with
Patent search first like on Google.
4. It is also crucial to constantly work with experts like attorney to know more and more
about intellectual property and also ask for fixed cost (Bradner and Contreras, 2017).
Q8. Which option is best - and why?
Patent in this case is the best option since it leally protect and create a monopoly over the work
or inventions and also saves new as well as inventive kind of technical characteristics of the
processes. It stays for a limited period of time. In order to qualify for it, an invention should be
new, consist of invention, can be applied at industrial level and cannot be particularly removed
from protection (Leaffer, 2014).
In order to get a patent, it is important to file for an application for one which usually comes with
a patent office of the nation where the creator functions. Patent also help in providing a high
level of safety and are crucial for some industries as well. But it is also important to understand
that patents are costly to get and later maintain (Leaffer, 2014). It also consists of public based
disclosure of varied technologies which can help in enabling a competitor to grow varied
competing products without any infringement of the patent.
Analysis of the situation from the point of view of an ICT Professional using the ACS Code
of Ethics
The case discussed in the report focus on the restrictions that question the integrity and there is
also a need to comply with the present laws for the same. At the same time, Jean also violated

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number of professional level ethics in two particular areas like failure to provide proper credit for
somebody else work and usage of code for the sake of commercial based package that can be
copyrighted at later stage. Let’s assume that Jean only looked at the work of colleague for ideas
and then wrote the program herself, and then will she have to give the credit? The answer to this
is yes, she must acknowledge the work of coworker in the documentation (Leicester, 2016).
There are matters of discretion in professional matter since when the overall usage is of
intellectual material of other people which can be trivial, and then there is a possibility that will
not need to be part of formal credit. The overall use of commercial based software by Jean was
not correct since she much have cross checked to decide whether or not her workplace has the
authority to use the code before actually putting it on use (Leicester, 2016). Also it normally a
need to share as well as exchange intellectual material by using bootlegged or software that is
definitely can violate the code.
1. As per the code of ethics, in order to uphold a high honor, effectiveness along with
dignity of the profession of IT and also keeping up with high level of standards based on
competency and high ethical conduct, it is important that a member act honestly and be
impartial, loyalty in serving the society and look to raise the level of competencies and
work with prestige of the profession and in the end also use special base of knowledge as
well as skills for the advanced level of human welfare (Leicester, 2016).
2. There is personal level of commitment that sets out to bind every member with regard to
professional conduct of members. It consists of value and ideal which want professional
to act as per integrality while dealing with society and customers. It is also important to
priorities the work and work in competent and in diligent manner for the customers. It is

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also important to be honest in representing the skills, services and knowledge (Warren et
al., 2016). There are number of society based implication along with professional growth.
3. Standard of conduct are those standard that set out the National level of regulations that
also illustrate the way code of ethics can be applied to the professional work of members.
The list is based on standard regulation which is not expected to exhaustive and must also
be read as a part of definitive demarking of the accepted or unaccepted professional
conduct in real life. The motive of the standard is to conduct and explain things in detail
and the meaning of code of ethics as per the particular attitude (Dzombak, 2017). The
important fact here is that the member can become the part or sometime not become a
part of various standards that does not guarantee about a member who is acting in an
ethical manner as applicable. It is also expected to take into account the overall zest of
the code of ethics to solve all kind of contentious problems related to ethical conduct.
4. Priorities: it is important to adhere to constant flow of services in IT and data flow. The
work must be preserve the overall integrity and safety of the data of other. There must
also be some respect of the nature at proprietary level of getting the information of other
people.
5. Competence: this point says or expects people to give those services that can match the
functional and finance requirement of the customers and workers. It is also important to
give services which are value for money and as employees, it is also crucial to be more
aware of important standard and work as per the standards. It is also important to pay
respect and save the proprietary interest of the customers and the employers (Dzombak,
2017). One must the accountability to function and also advise the customers and the
workers when it is believed to have a proposed project is not a part of best of interest.

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6. Honesty: as the name suggest, this part says that one must not mislead the customers or
prospective customers intentionally as per the suitability of product as well as services. It
is also important to not mislead the skills and overall knowledge of the people. The
advice must be provided and it must be objective and unbiased by nature. There must be
an existence of some realistic predictions for the project and must be under the control of
an expert. While deciding the estimates one must be realistic in approach (Dzombak,
2017). Professional views must be based on restricted knowledge or experience and due
credit should be given for the work performed by other people.
7. Social implications: it is important to save as well as promote the required health and
safety of those people who are affected by the work. It is also important to consider as
well as respect the privacy of the people which can also impact the work. There should be
respect for the workforce and must avoid treating them in unfair manner. It is also
important to get clarity on understanding and giving right regards to the opinion of people
who are affected by work (Webb, 2016). One must also attempt to raise the level of
feeling for the sake of personal competency and satisfaction and overall control for
people who are impact by the work.
8. Professional development: it is important to constantly upgrade the knowledge and
required skills and it should also raise the level of awareness on problems that impact IT
and its association with the community. It is also very crucial to motivate the workforce,
peers and students to stay on the path of development at professional level (Webb, 2016).
Conclusion
In the end, it can be easily said that the ethical base for decision making is actually an important
part of the lives of professionals. Many times, the current set of professional especially in

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information technology faces specific situations based on ethical confusion or dilemma which
makes it crucial to take all the decisions morally right as well as decision that can be well
justified. As per the professional code of ethics, one can also say that it is the moral duty of a
professional in IT field to direct all kind of actions in the direction of the overall welfare of the
community (Webb, 2016). The actions must not negatively impact the community in any way.
This is why, it is also crucial for the professional to use and base their work on ethical
framework while taking important decisions for the company. This way, the current case, is
based on doing ethics based framework which has been use for dealing with a particular case.
The case shows the unethical activity of Jean where she disregard the work done by other people
and took it for her work without giving much needed credit (Webb, 2016). While applying the
framework in this case, the solution suggests necessary changes that can be made in the policies
of the company. These modifications will be in alignment of the feedback given by the
managers.

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References
Bently, L. and Sherman, B., 2014. Intellectual property law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Biagioli, M. and Galison, P., 2014. Scientific authorship: Credit and intellectual property in
science. Routledge.
Bradner, S. and Contreras, J., 2017. Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology (No. RFC
8179).
Drahos, P., 2016. A philosophy of intellectual property. Routledge.
Dzombak, D.A., 2017. Crossing Researcher-Public Boundaries. Environmental science &
technology, 51(3), pp.1057-1057.
Hovenkamp, H. and Carrier, M.A., 2016. IP and antitrust: an analysis of antitrust principles
applied to intellectual property law (Vol. 1). Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Leaffer, M., 2014. Cross-border enforcement of intellectual property rights in US law. Research
Handbook on Cross-border Enforcement of Intellectual Property edited by P. Torremans, p.2.
Leicester, N., 2016. Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on
Professional Behaviour?.
May, C., 2013. The global political economy of intellectual property rights: The new
enclosures? (Vol. 3). Routledge.
Warren, M., Warren, M., Lucas, R. and Lucas, R., 2016. Ethics and ICT: Why all the
fuss?. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 14(2), pp.167-169.
Webb, J., 2016. Events: Kuala Lumpur workshop on chemical code of ethics. Chemistry in
Australia, (Sep 2016), p.43.
Wong, D.J.N., 2016. Training in the ethics of audit, quality improvement and
research. Anaesthesia, 71(9), pp.1113-1114.

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