The Ethics of Modern Communication

Jeremy Bowers

Abstract:

Communication technology has changed so radically in the past ten years that we no longer even know what is ethical, let alone legal. The author shows why communication has changed, why it is now impossible to think about communication the way we are accustomed to thinking, and proposes a workable framework defining ethical communication in the Internet era. The author applies this framework to the many controversies boiling around the net today, and attempts to derive legal principles (i.e., practical ethics) that can be used reliably, even by those who do not have a deep understanding of technical issues.