Making your decisions ethical

Even the most principled net execs see shades of gray in software licensing, vendor billing mistakes and other business issues that challenge their values.

Each new business day brings challenges that test values and shape character, especially in this era of tighter budgets, shortened project cycles and cutthroat competition. How do network executives ensure that their shops stay ethical?

"Sometimes it's a tough call to know the right thing to do," says Dieter Marlovics, CIO at Gelber Group, a Chicago brokerage firm. "That's why ethics is such an important topic to discuss. You for the most part know what you should do, but when it comes right down to it, what would you really do?"

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Each new business day brings challenges that test values and shape character, especially in this era of tighter budgets, shortened project cycles and cutthroat competition. How do network executives ensure that their shops stay ethical?

"Sometimes it's a tough call to know the right thing to do," says Dieter Marlovics, CIO at Gelber Group, a Chicago brokerage firm. "That's why ethics is such an important topic to discuss. You for the most part know what you should do, but when it comes right down to it, what would you really do?"

The most common ethical dilemmas network professionals face have to do with software licenses and digital copyrights.

"The nature of digital information makes it difficult for people to see it in the same moral category [as physical property]," says Caroline Whitbeck, an ethics professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and director of the school's Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science. "If you steal someone's pencil, they don't have the pencil anymore, but if you copy their software, they still have the software."

Winn Schwartau, president of The Security Awareness Company and a computer ethics expert, agrees but adds that enforcement is also an issue. "Nobody really knows if you have the right number of licenses in place. And very few companies actually get audited, so the temptation to cheat is there," Schwartau says.

We asked several network executives what they would do if they learned they didn't have enough software licenses to accommodate their users, but also knew no money was available to purchase more. Most said they would either find a way to purchase the software or go without. "If I found out, we'd license it," says Donald Sternfeld, a CIO who oversees networking at Ropes & Gray, a Boston law firm. "We just don't do illegal software here, ever."

Sternfeld says he ensures users can't load unapproved software by locking down their desktops, and he makes sure the firm stays current on licenses in his crafting of software agreements. "We have licenses where you 'true-up' annually," he says. "Once a year, you take an inventory of everybody using a product, and you purchase what you need. That's totally within the terms of the agreement."

In a law firm, ethics aren't optional, he says. "We're held to high standards. If it came out in the press that we were doing something unethical or illegal, we could lose clients. It's not worth it," he says.

At Gelber, employees are held responsible. "We establish upfront that illegal software is not condoned here," Marlovics says. "If people don't listen and someone gets caught, that person is responsible." If the company is fined, the person who copied the software is responsible for the payment, he says.

Others say practical considerations take precedent. "Our problem was Microsoft [Office] licensing," says Tom Rohde, director of technical services for Wells Dairy, an ice cream company in Le Mars, Iowa, and runner-up in our 2002 User Excellence Award competition. "We purchased new hardware but we couldn't purchase the software licenses for it at the time. The money wasn't there. But we kept track, and when our software agreement with Microsoft came due, we bought what we needed to become current and then some."