Book details of 'Gift of Fire, A: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing'

Title	Gift of Fire, A: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing
Author(s)	Sara Baase
ISBN	0134587790
Language	English
Published	December 1996
Publisher	Prentice Hall

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Gift of Fire, A: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
This book is a comprehensive look at various issues which are at the forefront of the information revolution: computers and privacy, censorship on the net, protection of intellectual property, encryption policy, computer crime, and the risks associated with unexpected computer failures. Sara Baase does a good job of balancing these controversies with various points of view, and offering perspective and solutions. Although this book is meant for academic use, it's extremely accessible.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
I found this book very surprising. As a look at computer ethics, it covers privacy, encryption, reliability, intellectual property, crime, work, and social issues. Each chapter comes with review exercises, general exercises, and assignments that are reasonably well chosen and formulated. There are extensive endnotes and references for further study. There are, however, two major flaws. One concerns the technical level of the material. Most of the cases presented are not inaccurate, but they are often oversimplified. A lack either of technical understanding or of research seems evident in places. Internet- pornography-blocking software is mentioned, but not the more disturbing addition of political restrictions to that software. The initial use of "hacker" as a positive term is mentioned--and then completely ignored, as crackers, phreaks, and virus writers are all lumped together as hackers. True, a discussion of computer ethics and social issues does not always require a detailed understanding of the technology, but a debate proceeding on the basis of a flawed understanding is more likely to come to a flawed conclusion. The other problem is that ethics are left completely out of the picture until the final chapter of the book. This is extremely odd, and suggests that the first ninety percent of the book will be used in a "pooling of ignorance" exercise before any common ground has been discussed. With its breadth of topics (rather like a less thorough version of "Computer Related Risks" [cf. BKCMRLRS.RVW]), it would make a reasonable adjunct text for an ethics/social issues course. But it is no replacement for Johnson's "Computer Ethics" [cf. BKCMPETH.RVW]. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997
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