EDITOR’S NOTE: Business Ethics Quarterly invited a number of scholars involved with BEQ over its first twenty years (especially in its early years, as editors or editorial board members) to offer their reflections on the past, present, and future of business ethics. The resulting comments, which appear below, are as diverse and eclectic as the group of scholars who have given their energies to BEQ over the years.

This paper illustrates the overlap of computer ethics and business ethics by examining two issues. The first is the lack of fit between digitalized information and copyright protection. Although there are moral arguments that can be used to justify protection of intellectual property, including computer software and digitalized data, the way that copyright protection has developed often reflects vested interests rather than the considered weighing of moral considerations. As a result, with respect to downloading MP3s, among other material, what is (...) ethical is largely determined by the appropriately passed laws in each jurisdiction, and what is ethically permissible in one jurisdiction may be ethically impermissible in another. The second issue is the outsourcing of IT jobs from the U.S. While the practice has been politicized, examining it from an all-things-considered perspective, this paper argues it is ethically justified. (shrink)

This paper looks at the changes that have taken place during the past three decades in developing countries as reported in the 2013 UN Human Development Report and how they affect the obligations of multinationals from developed countries. It argues that the changes call for greater attention to the growing North-South paradigm and its implicit Respect-cooperation model rather than the still dominant Developed/Developing Nations paradigm and its Dependency-victim model. It examines some of the rethinking such a paradigm change makes in (...) approaching poverty reduction and corporate social responsibility. (shrink)