A compilation of the proceedings from a symposium of the same name as the book. Topics include: access to information; Internet ethics and free speech; the ethics of electronic information in China today; privacy and the Internet; copyright; and regulation of information and Internet commerce.

This collection of essays explores the ethical issues that arise when information technology seems to exceed and even contradict the purpose of its creators. The studies focus upon the management of information technology, specifically the Internet, considering the most ethical ways of generating, using, and controlling information technology in our time. Section One includes essays pertaining to Africa’s place in the 21st century, including democracy, information flow, connections with the world through the Internet, telecommunications, Uganda and the digital divide, and an examination of a pilot study in South Africa for developing a universal tool to measure information poverty. The essays of Section Two cover topical library issues, such as professional information organizations and their ethic codes, communicating ethics when teaching electronic research to undergraduates, pay-for-placement search engines, consumer health information services, laws applying to confidentiality of library records, privacy control after September 11, cybercrime investigation, and the technologies protecting copyright. The essays were originally presented at the “Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century” symposium held at the University of Memphis on October 24-27, 2002. Each includes references and helpful Internet resources.

Stephen Almagno’s career as a professor of library science began at the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. In 1990, he became the first professor in the United States to teach an information ethics course in a library and information science program. Almagno’s work in the area of information ethics was recognized at the 2001 “Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century” symposium held at the University of Memphis on October 18–21, 2001, upon the occasion of his retirement from the University of Pittsburgh. The essays in this book were presented at the symposium honoring Almagno. The first section of the book features papers that pay special tribute to Almagno. The second contains papers on library issues and ethics, such as the ethics of electronic information in China and eastern Europe, the organizations that represent information professionals, the ethics of user privacy in the digital library, and ethical implications of e-commerce, to name just a few. The third section covers topical issues, such as Internet plagiarism, ethical hacking and the security justification, social democracy and information media policy, and the ethics of dialogue, among others.

Questions surrounding the concept of freedom versus security have intensified in recent years due to the rise of new technologies. The increased governmental use of technology for data collection now poses a threat to citizens’ privacy and is drawing new ethical concerns. Ethical Issues and Citizen Rights in the Era of Digital Government Surveillance focuses on the risks presented by the usage of surveillance technology in the virtual public sphere and how such practices have called for a re-examination of what limits should be imposed. Highlighting international perspectives and theoretical frameworks relating to privacy concerns, this book is a pivotal reference source for researchers, professionals, and upper-level students within the e-governance realm.

Virtual Worlds are being increasingly used in business and education. With each day more people are venturing into computer generated online persistent worlds such as Second Life for increasingly diverse reasons such as commerce, education, research, and entertainment. This book explores the emerging ethical issues associated with these novel environments for human interaction and cutting-edge approaches to these new ethical problems. This volume’s goal is to put forward a number of these virtual world ethical issues of which research is only commencing. The developing literature specifically regarding virtual world ethics is a recent phenomenon. Research based on the phenomenon of virtual world life has only been developing in the past four years. This volume introduces pathbreaking work in a field which is only just beginning to take shape. It is ideal as both as a library reference and a supplementary text in upper-division courses focused on the issues of applied ethics and new media. It is unique in being one of the first volumes specifically addressed to ethical problems of the “metaverse”. This volume includes articles from authors from around the world exploring topics such as: employing rationalist and casuistic approaches to the controversial topic of “virtual rape” yield an increased understanding of how virtual worlds ought to be designed, the relationship between the ethical and legal dimensions of virtual world users’ participation in “paratexts”, utilitarian consideration of harm and freedom in the case of virtual pedophilia, norms of research ethics in virtual worlds, the ethical implications of employing virtual worlds as tools for medical education and experimenting with healthcare services, the ethics of the collective action of virtual world communities, consideration of the virtue and potential of cosmopolitanism in virtual worlds, Deleuzian ethical approaches to the experience of the disabled in virtual worlds, the ethics of virtual world design, and the ethical implications of the “illusion of reality” presented by virtual worlds.