Netiquette

I've been instructed to answer these questions about netiquette:

Scenario #1 – A student sends a harassing e-mail to another student. The receiving student
retaliates with a “flaming e-mail.” Is this the appropriate response? If not, what would be?

• Talk to the sender in person instead of responding with you're own inappropriate e-mail. By talking to the student you can find out why he chose to send it and from there you could sort out a resolution between you and the other student.

Scenario #2 – When hanging out with friends, one of the students makes a call on their cellphone and carries on a conversation while still within the group. Is this ok? Why or why not?

• No, because although you may think that the phone call is not private, the person you are talking to may think so. Plus, the people at the table may think it's rude and offensive. 

Scenario #3 – A student logs on to a free file sharing website and downloads a song they just heard on the radio. Is this ok? Why or why not?

• No, because that is pirating and pirating movies or songs is illegal. The reason being, you're are depriving the artist from his hard earned money.

Scenario #4 – A student follows a questionable link to a website and downloads a malicious script which releases a Trojan Horse virus on to the school network. Is the student to blame? Why or why not?

• Yes. He is to blame because he chose to click on a link he did not know about. He should have asked for permission from a teacher before he carried out his action.

Scenario #5 – An hour before class, a student remembers that a writing assignment is due. The student goes to the library, logs on to a website, and copies/pastes the information. Is this ok? Why or why not?

• No. That's plagiarism. This is also illegal. You are basically stealing what an author took his time to write whereas you took a maximum of 30 seconds. 

Scenario #6 – At home, a student uses a software package to copy movies and games from DVD’s for his or her friends. Is this within fair-use laws? Explain.

• No. This is similar to pirating if not the same. You are stealing the developers money from them by not buying separate copies. 

Scenario #7 – A student logs into the school website to download the syllabus they lost. Are they breaking any rules or laws? Explain.

• This is fine because you are not publishing that syllabus somewhere else. 

Scenario #8 – Students spend a good amount of time in class creating a web page for a school sponsored fundraiser. However, there website is not usable by certain individuals with disabilities. Was this disrespectful or wrong of them?

• No. You can't plan for every detail such as Epilepsy or other disabilities. If you have something with flashing lights or something that may offend or harm someone, put a warning sign on the portal to that particular website.

Why do you think netiquette is important? Why are we using part of our class time for this?

• It's important because without Netiquette, several people would be offended, harmed, or put out of business because of what certain people do on the internet. We are using class time so we know about how to do the good things before we know how to do the bad.