Academic Writing

Q1. Following a debate among four political candidates during a campaign, you quickly record videos of candidates talking with individuals from the audience. One candidate, responding sympathically to a person complaining about how an insurance company handled his insurance claim, says “All insurance company executives ought to be shot”. Another candidate talking with a person who is angry about illegal immigration , says, “anyone sneaking across the border illegally ought to be shot”. Another candidate, sitting on a chair in the back is snoring. And a fourth, a man, invites an attractive woman back to his hotel room to continue their discussions over drinks. Q1a. Discus the ethics of posting the videos of candidate’s comments (or snoring) on the web. Give reasons in favour of posting and reasons not to post. Q1b. Which, if any would post? To what extent would or should , your support of or opposition to the candidate affect the decision? Q2. The New York City police department is developing a system to screen all vehicles entering Manhattan (Manhattan is the center of major business activities in NY City) . The plan will include license plate readers, cameras and radiation detectors. Discuss pros and cons of such a plan . What operational guidance should be there to protect citizen’s privacy? Q3. An antiabortion website posted a list of doctors perform abortions and judges and politician who support abortion rights. It included address and other personal information of some of the people. When doctors in the list were injured or murdered, the site reported the results. A suit to shut the controversial site for inciting violence failed. A controversial appeals court found this to be an exercise of freedom of speech. The essential issue is the fine line between threats and protected speech, a difficult issue that predates the internet. Does the fact that this is an internet site and not a printed and mailed newsletter make any difference? Explain. Q4. Which of the following activities will be fair use, in your opinion? Give reasons citing copy right laws or court cases. (a) Making a copy of a friend’s spreadsheet program and try out for two weeks. Then if you like it purchase the software or if you don’t like delete the software. (b) Making a copy of a computer game, play it for two weeks and then delete it.