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from the Keep-everything-under-digital-lock dept.
Computer Programmers get new Tech Ethics Code
The guidelines come from the Association for Computing Machinery
Technological professionals are the first, and last, lines of defense against the misuse of technology. Nobody else understands the systems as well, and nobody else is in a position to protect specific data elements or ensure the connections between one component and another are appropriate, safe and reliable. As the role of computing continues its decades-long expansion in society, computer scientists are central to what happens next.
Personally, I am quite concerned that our Congress has not attached Responsibility with Rights when it comes to software. If someone is going to claim ownership and rights to a piece of code then protect it with electronic lock or obscurity, why aren't they also held 100% responsible if that code causes mayhem?
We just had a story here about the concerns we have about a hemoglobin based meat substitute ... and what we go through to make damn sure the substance is harmless to life before we introduce it into the food chain... and even *that* has to be completely described and its molecular structure demonstrated.
Can you imagine the uproar if Chemists started releasing anything tasty, that people would eat, and call it "food"? And would our Congress grant them the right to withhold information as to what it was? Then hold them harmless for whatever it did to people?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by VLM on Monday August 13 2018, @01:56PM (1 child)
There's no logic to any of that in USA legal system. That's the root of the problem. Its NOT a specifically programming or technology or engineering related issue.
For example two adult humans get drunk, have sex, the male is guilty of rape because women are inferior and cannot consent to sex while drunk, unlike males who not only are legally assumed to consent but have no legal protection against rape if they're drunk. If two drunk lesbians have sex, who raped who? Ditto two drunk guys, which one was the victim and which the rapist?
Or if women can't consent to sex while drunk, then all female DUI convictions should be nullified because surely they cannot consent to driving if they can't consent to sex while drunk.
If you try to find logic and common sense in responsibility laws under the current regime, you won't find it, generally. So programmer / engineer / tech responsibility laws not making sense are a mere drop in the bucket of the laws in general not making any sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @10:08PM
Er... without really knowing it, you just summed up most of what is currently wrong with the coding industry.