Computers, Information Technology, the Internet, Ethics, Society and Human Values

Philip Pecorino, Ph.D.

Queensborough Community College,  CUNY

Chapter 12 Political Change

Cases

Allowing Access to Information  Copyright (C) 1998 by Dr. Henk Van Setten


There exists a not-for-profit organization which maintains a web page called www.jstor.org (the "jstor" stands for "journal storage"). This page makes available back issues (including abstracts of articles and the full articles themselves) of various academic journals.

An ethical issue arises in terms of who has access to this page. Access to it is restricted to subscribing institutions in the United States and Great Britain which pay a sizeable initial fee and a subsequent annual fee. The JSTOR organization explains its fee structure on its web page in the statement between the dotted lines below:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

JSTOR's focus is on becoming a trusted archive. We do not publish current issues of the journals. Current issues represent journal publishers' main, if not only, revenue stream, and it is not the purpose of JSTOR to put that revenue at risk. We believe it is possible to work with publishers in a complementary way that will be to everyone's benefit. In our agreements with publishers we have established a lag period, which we call the "moving wall", that defines the point at which the JSTOR archive stops, and "current" issues start. In some cases, the moving wall is three years (meaning the last issue available in the JSTOR archive would be one published three years ago); in other cases it is five years. In any event, as each year passes, another year is added to the archive, thus guaranteeing that the archive is being constantly updated and refreshed.

For publishers that are beginning to publish current issues in electronic formats, we are working to establish technological linkages that will make it possible for users to search from the current issue right back through the first issue in the JSTOR archive.

All academic institutions are offered site licenses permitting access to the Phase I archive to faculty, staff and students registered with the institution. These licenses vary in cost based on the size, nature and scale of the participating library/institution.

There are two types of payment: 1) a one-time Database Development Fee (DDF), for permanent access rights to information in the Phase I archive; and 2) an Annual Access Fee (AAF), to help cover the recurring costs of updating and maintaining the archive. Fees

              [Size of Institution]
     Very Large   Large   Medium   Small   Very Small 
DDF $45,000     $35,000 $25,000  $20,000 $10,000 
AAF  $5,000      $5,000  $4,000   $3,000  $2,000 

Very Large is a new JSTOR class. For institutions in this class the DDF has been increased from $40,000 to $45,000. To give institutions an opportunity to participate at the lower rate, the new fee will become effective January 1, 1999.

  Questions which arise are: 

1) Is it ethical for JSTOR to limit access only to those academic institutions which can afford this service (even given the payment-by-size scale mentioned above) ?

2) Is it ethical for JSTOR to limit access only to institutions in the United States and Great Britain?

International Jurisdiction

Involving artists’ ownership rights to their artistic creations vs free down-loading on the Internet; or web sites that are ethically accepted in one culture and ethically offensive to other cultures (Whose values should be upheld on the Internet?); or the question of whether there exists a set of “core values” shared by all societies – values that could become the foundation for a “global ethics” that could or should reign supreme on the Internet.

Cartoons concerning Mohammad and terrorism published in Denmark-read about it a wikipedia

CULTURE CLASH Computer Communications CASE

turn to next section

Web Surfer's Caveat: These are class notes, intended to comment on readings and amplify class discussion. They should be read as such. They are not intended for publication or general distribution. ppecorino@qcc.cuny.edu                @copyright 2006 Philip A. Pecorino                       

Last updated 8-2006                                                              Return to Table of Contents