Cambridge AS & A Level · Part 1 · Chapter 10
Ethics and Ownership
How a computing professional should behave, who owns software and other creative work, how licences control what you may do with it, and what artificial intelligence means for society. Every section, worked example, discussion point and exam-style question from the chapter is here, with scenario labs to practise each idea.
Guru Jazzy🎯 Learning objectives
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
- show understanding of the need for, and purpose of, ethics as a computing professional
- show understanding of the need to act ethically, and the impact of acting ethically or unethically in a given situation
- show understanding of the need for copyright legislation
- show understanding of the different types of software licensing, and justify the use of a licence for a given situation
- show understanding of artificial intelligence (AI)
⚖️ 10.01 Ethics
There are many definitions of ethics. Three common ones:
- Ethics is the field of moral science.
- Ethics are the moral principles that guide any person.
- Ethics are the rules of conduct recognised in a particular profession or area of human life.
This chapter is about the third definition: rules of conduct for a profession. But those rules should reflect the moral principles of the second definition, so it helps to think about where moral principles come from.
Moral principles are about right and wrong. What counts as right or wrong can be judged from four viewpoints:
| Viewpoint | Where the idea of “right” comes from | Role in professional rules |
|---|---|---|
| Philosophical | More than 2000 years of debate, e.g. Aristotle and Confucius | One of the two foundations of codes of conduct |
| Religious | Religions adopt existing philosophies or introduce their own | Must be respected in the workplace, but not the basis of a code |
| Legal | Laws should reflect what is right and wrong | Affect working practices, but are rarely the main focus of a code |
| Pragmatic | Applying common sense | The other foundation of codes of conduct |
👩💻 10.02 The computing professional
Whatever their specialism, every professional is expected to act ethically. A professional can get guidance by joining a professional organisation, which will have a code of conduct that covers ethical practice.
The British Computer Society (BCS) code of conduct
Its guidance is given under four headings:
The IEEE-CS/ACM Software Engineering Code of Ethics
The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) are based in the USA but have global influence. Their joint task force wrote a code with eight principles. Tap each one to see what it asks of a software engineer.
What the codes have in common
The details differ, but the codes agree that:
- the public interest (the public good) is a key concern
- The codes present fundamental principles
- the professional is expected to exercise their own judgement
- the professional should seek advice if unsure.
🎮 Which principle is at stake?
Read the situation and pick the IEEE-CS/ACM principle it mainly concerns.
🧩 Worked Example 10.01 Applying ethics
Applying ethics to a software engineering scenario
You work for a software company on a project for a client. The project manager says the project is behind schedule, so testing will be cut to one week instead of the one month in the project plan.
Work through the eight principles in turn:
| Principle | Your thinking | Concern? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Public | Probably no immediate public interest issue. | — |
| 2 Client and employer | The client may get a sub-standard product, which would reflect badly on your employer. | Yes |
| 3 Product | The primary concern: a poor-quality product is likely. | Primary |
| 4 Judgement | You must decide what action, if any, to take. | Decision |
| 5 Management | A secondary concern: this is poor management. | Secondary |
| 6 Profession | A product full of errors could make the profession look bad, but it is not a primary concern. | Minor |
| 7 Colleagues | Colleagues are under pressure to deliver on an unrealistic timescale. | Yes |
| 8 Self | Not an issue for your own professional development. | — |
Now you must make a judgement. Choose one of the four possible scenarios to see what it leads to.
Pick a scenario above.
Teacher's notes
In the full code, documentation comes up under several principles, for example: Client and employer (keeping clients informed), Product (documenting requirements, designs and test results, and the significant issues found), and Judgement (signing only documents you have reviewed and agree with).
Why so often?
- Software is maintained for years, usually by people who did not write it; without documentation they cannot safely change it.
- Documentation is the evidence that a product was properly specified and tested, so it protects the client, the employer and the engineer.
- It makes problems and risks visible to managers and clients instead of hiding them.
- Users need documentation to use the software correctly and safely.
🌍 10.03 The public good
The IEEE-CS/ACM code refers in different places to:
- the health, safety and welfare of the public
- The public interest
- The public good
- public concern.
The BCS code says the professional should “have due regard for public health, privacy, security and wellbeing of others and the environment”. Neither code says exactly how to interpret this, so it helps to look at real cases.
Very few software failures have cost lives, but several have wasted huge sums of money because of simple errors.
🚀 Case 1: the Ariane 5 rocket (1996)
The rocket exploded 40 seconds after lift-off. About 500 million dollars of investment in development, scientific equipment and launch costs was lost. The cause was one line of code that converted a 64-bit floating-point number into a 16-bit integer. The value was too big, the resulting overflow crashed the program, and the rocket was lost with it.
🔬 Lab: squeeze a 64-bit value into 16 bits
A signed 16-bit integer can only hold −32 768 to +32 767. Drag the slider to change the value the flight software is trying to store (Ariane 5 flew faster than Ariane 4, so this value grew much larger than on the older rocket the code was written for).
🛰️ Case 2: the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter (1999)
The probe reached Mars but failed to get into orbit. All the software was supposed to use SI units, but one group of engineers used Imperial units. The mismatch only mattered when the calculations for getting into orbit were run. The loss to the public purse was 125 million dollars.
🔬 Lab: the unit mismatch
One program reported thruster impulse in pound-force seconds; the program reading it assumed newton seconds. 1 lbf·s = 4.448 N·s.
🏥 Case 3: the system that never got built
In 2011 the UK government scrapped the National Programme for IT in the NHS, commissioned in 2002. It never produced a workable system. The initial estimate was under £3 billion; about £12 billion was spent.
Here the software engineers were not to blame, but the part of the code of ethics aimed at project management, if correctly applied, would not have allowed this kind of failure.
🗣️ When the public worries about the endeavour itself
In those three cases the public concern was only about cost. In many other areas the public is concerned about what a computer system does, or what it has led to. For example:
- powerful companies pressuring smaller ones so that their products are used even when alternatives are more suitable or cheaper
- companies providing systems that do not guarantee security against unauthorised access
- organisations trying to conceal a security breach in their systems
- private data sent between individuals being stored and made available to security services
- social media sites allowing abusive or illegal content to be transmitted
- search engines returning results with no concern for the quality of the content.
The public does not have one consistent attitude to concerns like these, which makes it hard for one software engineer to judge what the public good is. Even if they decide their company is not acting in the public good, an individual has little influence, and some people who have acted have had their lives severely affected.
Teacher's notes
Good starting points to research (each one fits a bullet above): a large company fined by competition regulators for pushing its own products; a company that delayed telling customers about a data breach; whistleblowers who revealed mass surveillance of communications; social media platforms criticised for spreading harmful content.
For each, ask: what could an individual engineer have done? Raise it internally, refuse to work on it, report it to a regulator or professional body, or go public. Which of these can be justified under Public and Judgement, and what would it cost the engineer?
©️ 10.04 Ownership and copyright
If an individual creates and publishes a work with some originality, they become its owner and can claim copyright. Exception: if the individual works for an organisation, the organisation can claim copyright for work created by people who work for it. Copyright cannot apply to an idea, and it cannot be claimed on any part of a work previously published by someone else.
Copyright can apply to:
- a literary (written) work
- A musical composition
- A film
- A music recording
- A radio or TV broadcast
- A work of art
- a computer program.
Why copyright exists
- Creating a work takes time, effort and original thinking, so the holder should have the chance to earn money from it.
- It is unfair for someone else to copy the work and make money from it without paying the creator.
As with data protection (Chapter 9), laws are needed. Details vary by country, but an international agreement means copyright cannot be avoided, for example by publishing the work in another country without the holder's permission.
Typical copyright laws include
- a requirement for registration, recording the date the work was created
- a defined period during which copyright applies
- a policy for when the copyright holder dies
- an agreed way of indicating copyright, e.g. the © symbol.
Controlling how the work is used
The owner can include a statement about how the work may be used. For example, the ACM allows its code of ethics to be published without permission as long as it is not changed in any way and carries the copyright notice. That is one kind of permission granted when the work has not been sold. If someone has bought a copy of a copyrighted product, they may make copies solely for their own use. A general regulation also lets library users photocopy part of a book.
🎮 Can it be copyrighted?
📜 10.05 Software licensing
Commercial software
Commercial software is made and sold by a company aiming to make a profit, like any product, with one big difference: when you buy a computer you own it, but when you buy software you do not own it. The vendor keeps ownership; you have paid for an end-user licence to use it. The licence usually has to be paid for, with options such as:
- A fee for each individual copy
- a site licence allowing a set number of copies to run at any one time
- special rates for educational use.
A company may sometimes give a licence away free:
Whatever licence the user gets, the source code is not provided, and the licence limits how the software may be used.
When commercial software is justified
- It is available for immediate use and provides the functionality required.
- It has been made to work with software already installed.
- Continuous maintenance and support will be provided.
- Taking up a shareware offer may let you suggest how the software could be improved.
- Freeware may offer enough functionality for a user's limited needs.
Open or free licensing
Two global non-profit organisations provide open licensing. What they provide is similar, but their philosophies differ.
Open Source Initiative → open source software
Philosophy: open source allows collaborative development. Normally free of charge. Source code is provided. Users may use, modify, copy or distribute it, as the licence defines.
Free Software Foundation → free software
Philosophy: users should be free to use the software in any way they wish. Not necessarily free of charge (there may be a small distribution fee). Source code is provided. Its licence includes copyleft: if you modify the source, the modified version must be made available under the same conditions.
When open source software is justified
- All the functionality needed is available for at most a nominal cost.
- A few changes to the source code would give the required functionality.
- A group of developers are collaborating on a new software suite.
- The user controls future development of the software, or its continued provision.
Open source software: software provided with the source code.
Free software: software provided with the source code, which the user is free to use as they wish.
Shareware: software provided free of charge for a limited period, with no source code.
Freeware: software provided free of charge with no time limit, but no source code.
🔬 Lab: identify the licence
Set the features and see which licence type matches.
🎮 Justify the licence
Which kind of software best fits each situation?
Teacher's notes: a starter list
| Software | What it is | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Linux kernel | Operating system kernel (inside Android, most web servers) | GPL v2: copyleft |
| GIMP | Image editor | GPL v3: copyleft |
| Blender | 3D modelling and animation | GPL: copyleft |
| LibreOffice | Office suite | Mozilla Public Licence 2.0: weak copyleft |
| Firefox | Web browser | Mozilla Public Licence 2.0: weak copyleft |
| Python | Programming language | PSF licence: permissive |
| Apache HTTP Server | Web server | Apache 2.0: permissive |
On the discussion point: most people use open source every day without knowing it, because it runs much of the internet and sits inside phones, routers and smart TVs. Arguments for more use include lower cost, no lock-in to one vendor, and code anyone can inspect for security. Arguments against include patchy support, training costs, and compatibility with files from commercial packages.
🤖 10.06 Artificial intelligence (AI)
AI draws on many other disciplines: philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, mathematics, linguistics and control engineering. Definitions that everyone accepts tend to be very general. A typical one:
The book looks at five aspects of intelligent human behaviour and AI applications that mimic each one.
🧠 Problem solving
Chess: counts as AI only because chess has limited rules; with enough storage and processing power a computer can examine far more move sequences than a human.
Expert systems (e.g. medical diagnosis): built from data and rules supplied by medical experts, so they hold more knowledge than one doctor. But given a new situation outside their data and rules, they cannot try a creative new approach as a human can.
🗣️ Linguistics
Voice recognition and voice synthesis are already in use, e.g. a phone help line answered by a computer that identifies your needs and passes you to the right person. A computer that creates new questions from your answers and gives you the help itself is still a long way off.
👁️ Perception
Traditional factory robots repeat programmed tasks and carry on regardless if something unexpected happens. Autonomous robots have sensors and act on what the sensors tell them: that is perception. Driverless cars develop the idea; so far they manage only limited tasks such as parking in a vacant space.
🔍 Reasoning
Drawing inferences (reaching conclusions from evidence). The best examples are programs that prove mathematical theorems, and attempts to verify that software fully and correctly matches its documented specification.
📈 Learning
Machine learning: a system improves its performance at a task as it gains experience, here a massive data set processed by statistical algorithms. Examples: a website that advertises products based on users' past actions (rising sales show learning), and spam filters that decide which emails to refuse.
🎮 Which aspect of intelligence?
📬 Lab: watch a spam filter learn
Machine learning means getting better with experience. This tiny filter starts knowing nothing. Each time you label an email, it updates its count of how often each word appears in spam and in normal mail, then uses those counts to guess the next one.
🌐 The impact of AI
Possible benefits
- Organisations use massive data on internet use to increase profits: arguably normal business practice.
- New technology creates jobs making, servicing and installing the products.
- Less manual labour could mean more leisure time.
- Autonomous robots can work in environments too dangerous for humans.
- Better expert systems help doctors and nurses.
Concerns
- Data that is not stored securely could fall into the wrong hands and be used for criminal or subversive activity.
- Fewer jobs because machines do the work; the rich get richer and the poor poorer.
- Driverless vehicles might cause more accidents, without enough safeguards.
- Environmental impact of making and disposing of robots, probably the most significant issue: limited raw materials, and electronic waste on the scrap heap harms the environment and wildlife.
- If expert systems replaced doctors and nurses, the social consequences are hard to predict.
Teacher's notes
Since the book was written, AI has moved fast: large language models that write text and code, image generators, and much better speech recognition and translation. These raise exactly the chapter's issues: who owns AI-generated work (copyright), training on other people's work without permission (ownership), bias in training data (the public good) and effects on jobs.
In Thailand, look at the Computer Association of Thailand and the ECTI Association. Internationally, BCS, ACM and IEEE Computer Society all offer student membership.
📌 Summary
- There are different definitions of ethics.
- Professional organisations provide rules of conduct that include guidance on ethical behaviour.
- There is a history of software disasters that might have been prevented if good software engineering practice had been used.
- Copyright is formal recognition of ownership.
- The use of software is controlled by a licence.
- Only open source software is provided with the source code, which allows freedom of usage.
- AI is currently focused mainly on developing autonomous mechanical products, and on machine learning from massive data sets.
🃏 Key-term flashcards
Tap a card to flip it.
✅ Quick quiz
📝 Exam-style questions
Write your answer first, then open the model answer. These are my mark-scheme-style points, not official mark schemes.
- (i) the public interest (the public good).
- (ii) own (professional) judgement … advice (from a senior colleague or a professional body).
- (iii) the public (their health and safety) and the environment.
- (iv) client … employer.
- (v) work … the (professional) competence / skills.
Any two, each with an explanation:
- Software is maintained over a long life, often by different people, who need documentation to understand and safely change it.
- Documentation records requirements, design and testing, giving evidence the work meets the specification and professional standards, which protects client, employer and engineer.
- It keeps the client and managers informed of problems and risks, supporting honesty with the client and the public.
- Users need clear documentation to use the product correctly and safely.
- (i) Ownership of a created and published work.
- (ii) Any two: the date of creation; the name of the creator / owner; the title or description of the work.
- (iii) The period for which copyright applies, or what happens to the copyright if the holder dies.
- (iv) Any two: may be copied/published without permission as long as it is unchanged and carries the copyright notice; no copying at all without permission; copies allowed only for the purchaser's personal use; only part may be copied (e.g. for study).
- (i) Any two: a fee per individual copy; a site licence allowing a set number of copies to run at one time; a reduced educational rate. Benefit, e.g. a site licence: one payment covers the whole organisation, cheaper than buying each copy, and easy to manage.
- (ii) Both are free of charge with no source code. Shareware is free only for a limited (trial) period; freeware has no time limit.
For example (4 marks each):
- Medical expert system — mimics problem solving (and reasoning). Benefit: holds more knowledge than any one doctor, giving faster, more consistent diagnosis, especially where specialists are scarce. Or concern: cannot handle cases outside its rules, and if it replaced doctors the social consequences are unpredictable.
- Driverless car — mimics perception, using sensors to react to its surroundings. Benefit: may reduce accidents caused by human error and help people who cannot drive. Or concern: could cause accidents in unexpected situations, there may not be enough safeguards, and driving jobs would be lost.
- Others: spam filter / recommendation system (learning); voice-operated help line (linguistics); theorem prover (reasoning).
Try it here first, then check.
| Activity | Ethical | Unethical |
|---|
Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9608, Paper 12 Q5, November 2015
Any three principles, each with a matching e-commerce example (1 + 1):
- Public: protect customers' personal and payment data, e.g. encrypt card details and follow data protection law.
- Client and employer: keep the client informed, e.g. tell them honestly if the deadline or budget is at risk.
- Product: meet the highest standards, e.g. test the checkout fully, including security testing, before release.
- Judgement: stay independent, e.g. refuse to sign off a release they know is not properly tested.
- Management: leaders plan realistic schedules, e.g. allow enough time for testing.
- Profession: protect the profession's reputation, e.g. do not exaggerate what the site can do.
- Colleagues: support teammates, e.g. share knowledge in code reviews and credit others' work.
- Self: lifelong learning, e.g. keep up to date with new e-commerce security threats.
Cambridge International AS & A Level Computer Science 9608, Paper 11 Q6, June 2016
Guru Jazzy · Cambridge AS & A Level Computer Science · Chapter 10 Ethics and Ownership · Figure from the Cambridge coursebook (Langfield & Duddell) · Model answers and teacher's notes are my own