Information ethics is a field of applied ethics that addresses the uses and abuses of information, information technology, and information systems for personal, professional, and public decision making. For example, is it okay to download someone else's intellectual property like pictures or music? Should librarians ever remove controversial books from the shelves or monitor users' Internet searching? Should a scientist post the genome for the Ebola virus on the Internet?

Information ethics provides a framework for critical reflection on the creation, control, and use of information. It raises questions about information ownership and access to intellectual property, the rights of people to read and to explore the World Wide Web as they choose. Information ethicists explore and evaluate the development of moral values, the creation of new power structures, information myths, and the resolution of ethical conflicts in the information society (Capurro 2001). If bioethics addresses living...