1. Some observers maintain that privacy rights are quickly becoming a thing of the past. In your opinion, is it possible to protect privacy rights in today’s online world?

2. Many argue that the federal government should not be allowed to monitor the Internet activities and e-mail exchanges of its citizens without obtaining a warrant. Yet others maintain that in some situations, when time is of the essence, such monitoring may be necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorists. Where the line should be drawn between justifiable and unjustifiable governmental interference with American citizens’ civil liberties?

3. Do companies that do business on a global level, such as Google, have an ethical duty to foreign citizens not to suppress free speech, or are it acceptable to censor the information that they provide in other nations at the request of a foreign government?

4. In your opinion, should gun manufacturers have a duty to warn gun users of the dangers of using guns? Would such a warning be effective in preventing gun related accidents?

5. Generally, do you believe that the law has struck a fair balance between the rights of intellectual property owners and the rights of the public?

Ethical and legal concepts are often closely intertwined. This is because the common law, as it evolved in England and then in America, reflected society’s values and customs. This connection between law and ethics is clearly evident in the area of tort law, which provides remedies for harms caused by actions that society has deemed wrongful. Criminal law is also rooted in common law concepts of right and wrong behavior, although common law concepts governing criminal acts are now expressed in, or replaced by, federal, state, and local criminal statutes. The number of torts and crimes has continued to expand as new ways to commit wrongs have been discovered.

The laws governing torts, crimes, and intellectual property—the areas of law covered in this unit—constitute an important part of the legal environment of business. In each of these areas, new legal (and ethical) challenges have emerged as a result of developments in technology. Today, we are witnessing some of the challenges posed by the use of new communications networks, particularly the Internet. In this Focus on Ethics feature, we look at the ethical dimensions of selected topics discussed in the preceding chapters, including some issues that are unique to the cyber age.