ESOC 330: Digital Dilemmas – Privacy, Property, and Access

This course focuses on the ethical issues that arise in the context of new and emerging information technologies-- e.g., threats to privacy of ubiquitous technological surveillance, limitations on access created by digital rights management. The course will use the framework of ethical theory to analyze these issues and to propose policy solutions. The goal of the course is to give students the necessary theoretical foundation to be involved in the evaluation and construction of information policies at the local, national, and international level. The course will focus on three core areas where digital dilemmas arise--information access, information privacy, and intellectual property. In order to achieve depth as well as breadth, the course will put one of these issues at the center and discuss the others in relation to it. So, for instance, the course may focus on Intellectual Property looking at the threats and benefits of IP to privacy and access. This syllabus provides an overview of the range of topics that may be discussed.