Netiquette Responses

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? This is not an appropriate response. The correct thing to do is to mark that address as spam using your email program and ignore that person.

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? This is not okay. It is common courtesy to excuse oneself before making a phone call.

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? This is not okay unless they own the rights to the song. 

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? There are questions that need answers. Did the student know the link was to questionable content? Like did he purposefully follow a link to hotbabezwithloosemoralz.com? Or was it a link to encyclopediabrittanica.ci? It really depends.

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? Of course it's not okay. He does not own the creative license on the information.

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. It is not okay unless he bought the rights to copy and distribute the DVD's and games. 

Scenario #7 – A student logs into the school website to download the syllabus they lost. Are they breaking any rules or laws? Explain. Unless it was posted as private content, they were not breaking any rules. The syllabus was posted as public on the school homepage, and he did not have to log in as a teacher to view the document, therefore it was okay.

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?

Why do you think netiquette is important? Why are we *using part of our class time for this?
Netiquette is important because it establishes rules for how people should behave on the Internet. Without them, the internet would surely fall into chaos. I assume we are using class time because some people haven't been following the rules of netiquette.