Ethical Dilemma: You are the president of Dynamic Publishing, a firm that publishes textbooks. During an overseas trip, you assess the prospects for marketing Dynamic’s textbooks abroad. Upon visiting a university in a developing country, you discover that many students use photocopied or locally reproduced versions of Dynamic’s books. Upon investigation, you are advised that most students could not afford to attend college if they were required to pay full price for the books. You are dismayed by the clear violation of intellectual property rights.

You believe Dynamic cannot maintain profitability if its intellectual property is infringed. You also feel obligated to protect the rights of the authors of Dynamic’s textbooks. At the same time, however, you are sympathetic to the students’ plight. Using the ethical framework in Chapter 4, analyze the dilemma presented here. Should you try to enforce Dynamic’s intellectual property rights, or should you look the other way and allow the illicit photocopying to continue?

Is there a creative solution to this problem?

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