IVEy |Publishing 9801C007 ORANGEWERKS: A QUESTION OF ETHICS Ken Mark prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Christina Cavanagh solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to Mustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation prohibits any form of reproduction, storage or transmittal without its written permission. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, clo Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, NGA 3K7; phone (519) 661-3208, fax (519) 661-3882; e- mail cases@ivey. uwo.ca. Copyright @ 2001, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2017-05-18 INTRODUCTION David Samarin, network administrator for Orange Werks, laced his shoes as he prepared to head out for his exercise break in Ottawa. It was February 7, 2011, and Samarin needed to decide what to do with the Authorized for use only in the course Business Ethics at Algoma University taught by Kareem Roberts from Feb 23, 2020 to Aug 31, 2021. Use outside these parameters is a copyright violation information he had uncovered while performing a routine file-clean of his company's servers. Located in Ottawa's trendy Glebe neighborhood, software developer OrangeWerks was preparing to present to venture capital firms for its first major round of funding. It was also fielding media interview requests the following week from the Ottawa Citizen and The National Post, both interested in writing news stories about Orange Werk's phenomenal increase in software licenses for its Orange Werks App Creator, a mobile application software development platform. ORANGEWERKS Orange Werks was founded in March 2010 by two successful entrepreneurs to create software applications for the Apple platform. The founders had noticed the growing popularity of Apple devices and wanted to capitalize on the recent launch of the Apple iPad. Furthermore, independent research by firms such as Forrester Research and Gartner suggested that the consumer market would continue to demand these and other products designed to access content on the Internet. Fueling the popularity of Apple OS-based devices was Apple's unique combination of appealing design, intuitive user interfaces, and the proliferation of downloadable - and inexpensive - applications (or "apps") for entertainment, business, and other uses. Orange Werks had developed an application development platform - Orange Werks App Creator (OAC) - that allowed novice users to create their own Apple app without any software training. They began to popularize their product by allowing consumers to download a limited version of their software free of charge