Reflective Journal on Ethics in Information Technology

This reflective journal discusses the topics covered in weeks 5-8 related to ethics in information technology, including freedom of expression, intellectual property, software development, and the impact of technology on quality of life. It also highlights the importance of understanding the positive and negative impacts of technology as an IT professional.

[Professional and etical practise]

JOURNAL 1
Reflective Journal
Before writing, the Journal on the provided topic Ethics in Information Technology my
perception about the topic is very different from what I have learned. In my learning section
in week 5, I have been taught about Freedom of Expression, the new thing that I come to
know in the topic is that the first amendment that was made is related to the rights to freedom
of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of speech but the freedom of expression do
not protect fraud and perjury, obscene and defamation speech, sedition and fighting words
and incitement to crime and incitement of panic (Belanger and Crossler, 2011). The freedom
of expression also controls the access to information on the internet that includes
communication decency act, telecommunication act and child online protection act. In the
week 6, I have been taught the topic related to intellectual property. While reading the topic I
come to know that the Intellectual property rights cover the copyright act 1968, trademark
acts 1995, patent and plant breeder’s rights act 1994. In the topic further, I have taught the
measures for the protection of intellectual property such as WTO TRIPS agreements 1994
under this the WTO has developed and TRIPS agreement to form less number of level of
protection that every government should provide to the intellectual property. Moreover,
GATT governs the multilateral trade agreements, PRO-IP act 2008, is developed to increased
trademark and copyright substantially and enforcement and increased penalties for
infringement (Acemoglu and Akcigit, 2012). In addition, I learned about WIPO copyrights
treaty 1996 that is developed to enhance the use of intellectual property right to encourage
individuations to more creative and innovative and come to know about DMCA this
developed to meet the demands of the digital age and to implement the WIPO treaty.
In the 7th week, I have come to know about the topic software development, in this topic I
learned about how the in the present world the companies are providing their focus on

JOURNAL 2
availing high-quality software system. It was comely seen the business world that the
software is playing an important role because the quality of software will help the business in
fulfilling their needs but if any defect is been found out in the software will fail the whole
system (Mehta, Hall and Byrd, 2014). In the 8 week, I have been taught impact of
technology on quality and productivity of life in this topic various facts related to the use of
technology was been discussed such as the technology will enhance the living standards and
productivity at work, it reduces the cost and improves the quality of healthcare (Buntin,
Burke, Hoaglin, and Blumenthal, 2011).
As an It professional this topic is defiantly going to help me in future by reading this topic I
come to know about the rights that are been given by the government to the general public
that is right of expression with that I also come to know about the rights related to intellectual
property. In addition, I come to know that in the present world how software is become very
important and in my career that is going to provide me various opportunities and I will try to
enhance my ability to overcome the negative impact of the technology and will surely utilise
the positive impact.

JOURNAL 3
References
Acemoglu, D. and Akcigit, U. (2012) Intellectual property rights policy, competition and
innovation. Journal of the European Economic Association, 10(1), pp.1-42.
Belanger, F., and Crossler, R. E. (2011) Privacy in the digital age: a review of information
privacy research in information systems. Journal of MIS quarterly, 35(4), 1017-1042.
Buntin, M.B., Burke, M.F., Hoaglin, M.C. and Blumenthal, D. (2011) The benefits of health
information technology: a review of the recent literature shows predominantly positive
results. Journal of Health affairs, 30(3), pp.464-471.
Mehta, N., Hall, D. and Byrd, T. (2014) Information technology and knowledge in software
development teams: The role of project uncertainty. Journal of Information &
Management, 51(4), pp.417-429.