The Anonymous Poster: How to Protect Internet Users’ Privacy and Prevent Abuse

The threat of anonymous Internet posting to individual privacy has been met with congressional and judicial indecisiveness. Part of the problem stems from the inherent conflict between punishing those who disrespect one\u27s privacy by placing a burden on the individual websites and continuing to support the Internet\u27s development. Additionally, assigning traditional tort liability is problematic as the defendant enjoys an expectation of privacy as well, creating difficulty in securing the necessary information to proceed with legal action. One solution to resolving invasion of privacy disputes involves a uniform identification verification program that ensures user confidentiality while promoting accountability for malicious behavior

Church Commercialization in Nigeria: Implications for Public Relations Practice

Church commercialization is phenomenon in the Nigerian Christendom. It has made the institution called church to deviate from its original tenets: sacredness, purity, holiness and promotion of truth, but rooted itself in the pursuit of materialism and mundane pleasures. Based on this premise, this study x-rayed various aspects of church commercialization, its causes and their implications for public relations practice. Survey research method was used to assess this situation and empirical results were found. From the results, this paper posits that church commercialization is a violation of both church and public relations ethics. It runs counter to church’s tenets of sacredness, holiness and purity and cannot be promoted through public relations practice. The paper also posits that church commercialization is an aberration and dints the image/reputation of the institution of the church. To stem the tide of church commercialization in Nigeria will be a herculean task for public relations practitioners as far as poverty level among Nigeria is high. Finally, it posits that church commercialization runs counter to the philosophy and promotion of truth telling, sincerity, honesty, and two-way symmetric model of communications and excellence in public relations practice.PR practitioners who promote churches or gospel preachers that indulge in the act of church commercialization violate the ethical code or code of conduct of public relations profession. The paper concludes that the era of falsehood and pernicious propaganda has gone, so church leaders; church workers and indeed public relations practitioners should embrace the practice of two-way symmetric model of communications that are nurtured in truth, mutual understanding and transparency if they must win and sustain public confidence. Recommendations were made based on the ethical and image/reputation issues discovered. Keywords: Church, commercialization, public relations, aberration, falsehoo

A Layered Framework Approach to Mitigate Crimeware

Crimeware attacks are growing at such an alarming rate and are becoming so prevalent that the FBI now rank cybercrime among its top priorities after terrorism and espionage. New studies estimate cyber crimes cost firms an astounding $1 trillion annually. But the good news? Over 80% of them are preventable. Crimeware is not a purely technical threat but more or a socio-technical affair. This clearly brings out the fact that computers do not commit a crime, but we (humans) do! In this paper I propose a layered approach that involves all stakeholders from end-users to service-providers and law enforcement to greatly mitigate the recent proliferation of crimeware. Keywords: Crimeware, Jurisdiction, International spac

You Can\u27t Handle the Truth! Trial Juries and Credibility

Every now and again, we get a look, usually no more than a glimpse, at how the justice system really works. What we see—before the sanitizing curtain is drawn abruptly down—is a process full of human fallibility and error, sometimes noble, more often unfair, rarely evil but frequently unequal. The central question, vital to our adjudicative model, is: How well can we expect a jury to determine credibility through the ordinary adversary processes of live testimony and vigorous impeachment? The answer, from all I have been able to see is: not very well

You Can\u27t Handle the Truth! Trial Juries and Credibility

Every now and again, we get a look, usually no more than a glimpse, at how the justice system really works. What we see—before the sanitizing curtain is drawn abruptly down—is a process full of human fallibility and error, sometimes noble, more often unfair, rarely evil but frequently unequal. The central question, vital to our adjudicative model, is: How well can we expect a jury to determine credibility through the ordinary adversary processes of live testimony and vigorous impeachment? The answer, from all I have been able to see is: not very well

Promoting Honesty in Negotiation: An Exercise in Practical Ethics

In a competitive and morally imperfect world, business people are often faced with serious ethical challenges. Harboring suspicions about the ethics of others, many feel justified in engaging in less-than-ideal conduct to protect their own interests. The most sophisticated moral arguments are unlikely to counteract this behavior. We believe that this morally defensive behavior is responsible, in large part, for much undesirable deception in negotiation. Drawing on recent work in the literature of negotiations, we present some practical guidance on how negotiators might build trust, establish common interests, and secure credibility for their statements thereby promoting honesty We also point out the types of social and institutional arrangements, many of which have become commonplace, that work to promote credibility, trust, and honesty in business dealings. Our approach is offered not only as a specific response to the problem of deception in negotiation, but as one model of how research in business ethics might offer constructive advice to practitioners.Credibility; Business Ethics; Negotiations; Institutions

Securities Fraud, Recidivism, and Deterrence

Legal scholars have expended considerable energy on the study of high-level securities fraud violators-Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. There has been little attention, however, to the perpetrators of retail securities fraud-the con artists who sell bogus stock over the Internet, orchestrate elaborate pump-and-dump schemes, and create a never-ending array of purportedly risk free investment opportunities. Collectively, and in a cruel mockery of capitalism, these offenders extract hundreds of millions dollars from investors each year. In this article, Professor Barnard examines this group of offenders, focusing particularly on those who recidivate-often moving from state to state and scheme to scheme, with little interruption from the law enforcement community. She hypothesizes that offenders in this group, much like sex offenders, may be hard wired to engage in fraudulent behavior. Even if that is not the case, however, these offenders present a much greater risk to the public than the current SEC enforcement regime contemplates. She proposes a series of new enforcement strategies to deal with this predatory population

Securities Fraud, Recidivism, and Deterrence

Legal scholars have expended considerable energy on the study of high-level securities fraud violators-Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. There has been little attention, however, to the perpetrators of retail securities fraud-the con artists who sell bogus stock over the Internet, orchestrate elaborate pump-and-dump schemes, and create a never-ending array of purportedly risk free investment opportunities. Collectively, and in a cruel mockery of capitalism, these offenders extract hundreds of millions dollars from investors each year. In this article, Professor Barnard examines this group of offenders, focusing particularly on those who recidivate-often moving from state to state and scheme to scheme, with little interruption from the law enforcement community. She hypothesizes that offenders in this group, much like sex offenders, may be hard wired to engage in fraudulent behavior. Even if that is not the case, however, these offenders present a much greater risk to the public than the current SEC enforcement regime contemplates. She proposes a series of new enforcement strategies to deal with this predatory population