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- Do fast-food chains have some responsibility for customers' weight problems?

- Is it wrong for a private social club to limit its membership to women based on their attractiveness?

- Should a real-estate broker tell the potential buyer about a murder that occured in a house, regardless of whether he or she was asked?
- Does an elected official have an ethical responsibility to keep tabs on where political contributions are coming from?
- Is it right to enact punishment before trial?
-- Is it ever all right to encourage a child to use force to stand up to a bully?
-- Is it OK to hide behind anonymity when voicing a complaint or criticism?
-- Is it OK to use sex appeal to get ahead in the business world?

SOUND OFF: SNEAK PEEKS


This month, someone posted instructions on one of Business Week's online forums about how to take advantage of a faulty design to access information on a Web site (applyyourself.com) that was handling applications for some of the country's top business schools. Apparently, no information was changed on the Web sites, but more than 200 prospective applicants to business schools at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, Dartmouth and Duke did log on to the Web site and used the instructions to try to access information on their own application status. (For some schools, the information had not yet been posted.)


Harvard, Carnegie Mellon and MIT announced they were rejecting the applications from those students who viewed the off-limits page. (Harvard alone dismissed 119 applicants.) Other schools announced they were either handling it on a case-by-case basis or were still deliberating on what action to take.


Did the applicants, who accessed the site by logging on legitimately and taking advantage of a faulty Web site design to view information the schools didn't want them to see, deserve to be rejected? Or were their actions justified given the importance of the information to their future and the fact that they didn't alter any information on the site?


What do you think? Send your thoughts to: rightthingnytimes.com. Please include your name, hometown and the name of the newspaper in which you read this column. Readers' comments may appear in an upcoming column.

(Jeffrey L. Seglin is the author of "The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business" and is the director of the graduate writing and publishing program at Emerson College in Boston, where he teaches ethics.)


Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@)nytimes.com or The Right Thing, New York Times Syndicate, 609 Greenwich St., 6th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10014-3610.


HERE'S WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

 


Did the applicants, who accessed the site by logging on legitimately and
taking advantage of a faulty Web site design to view information the
schools didn't want them to see, deserve to be rejected? Or were their
actions justified given the importance of the information to their future
and the fact that they didn't alter any information on the site?


This is a false dichotomy. There are lots of other possibilities.


The actions of the applicants clearly were not justified. (The context in which the story occurs sounds very high tech and on the cutting edge, but it's a pretty old and simple matter of having taken advantage of a security flaw that was pointed out by a third party--like if someone told me that the door to an office had a faulty lock, and I could gain access to the information in the room by taking advantage of that. My entering the office is clearly wrong--even if I don't steal anything or change any of the documents or commit other violations while I'm there).


On the other hand, did they deserve to be rejected? This is pretty much Harvard's call. Harvard is playing hardball--they seem to be embracing a "no tolerance" policy. But if Harvard let the applicants in to the university, I don't think Harvard would be at fault for not giving the applicants what they deserved. They might not be very smart though.
--Stephen Satris



Clemson, SC

 

 

I don't think the applicants did anything wrong, as long as -- and these are a big "as long as" -- they didn't change any information and they were viewing only their own application. In that case, I'd write it off as curiosity, either about their application status or, big geek that I am, about whether or not they could actually work the hack.


The unethical party in this case, it would seem, was whoever posted the instructions, or even Business Week, for not supervising/editing the forum. That information should've gone to applyyourself.com instead.

 

Lisa

 


Dear Jeff,

Re your "Sound Off" question on the business school applicants:

Is it breaking and entering if the store owner inadvertently leaves his door unlocked and you go inside? No. But it's still WRONG!
These business school applicants knew it was wrong to access the information in question, because they were using "back door" instructions provided by a third party; they were not given explicit permission by the schools. Among the qualifications for acceptance to institutions of higher learning including business schools is good character, and among the elements of good character are knowing right from wrong and respect for the rules. These applicants simply couldn't follow the rules. Some fine business leaders they'd make! The schools are right to reject their applications.

Sincerely,
Lori


Boston

 

 

On the surface, this would appear to be a simple issue. Students were accessing information that they knew was not intended to be released to them by the university to which they had applied for admission. That was wrong.


The universities had contracted with a vendor to process the applications, and the reply letters, but the information [which was the contractorís responsibility to protect] had not yet been released to the students.


The vendor employed by the universities had a flawed website that allowed students to access the status of their applications. The universities were not aware of the flaw.


However, Business Weekís online forum posted information on how to take advantage of a fulty design to access information on a website (ìapplyyourself.comî) that was handling the student applications. As an aside, it is interesting to note that none of the publicity on this issue addressed the question of why university staff/professors were not reading Business Week.


Notwithstanding the moral or ethical dilemma in accessing information they knew they were not entitled to, the students accessed the poorly protected website legitimately, and should not be punished for doing so. However, the argument can be made that they knew that the universities had not yet released the information, and that they knew they were getting information prior to its release by the universities. This was dishonest, and they knew it.


This is a case where institutions had not selected a vendor or developed a system that could effectively protect stored information prior to their decision to release it, and applicants (prospective students) became aware of information they were expecting. They were also made aware of a way to access the information. It is presumed that no warning or other information was made available to them that indicated that this was confidential information that had not yet been released by the universities or that the information had been ìhackedî by an unauthorized source (although one could have easily surmised this).


If all of the forgoing assumptions are factual, perhaps a compromise of sorts would be in order to mete out the best justice in these cases. My recommendation would be for each university to ask each of their applicants to articulate, in a formal letter, what their thoughts and motivations were for accessing a site that held information that they could reasonably assume had not been authorized for release of their application status. Then, each university should include the letters in the respective studentsí overall application packets, and judge their acceptability accordingly, with all other information available on the students.


Jan Bohren

Dobbs Ferry, NY

 

I think it is easy to say, I did not know it was wrong when one’s core values should have alerted these hackers to the possibility it was not right. I think the Harvard Dean said it best when he said these future leaders have instinctually know what is right and wrong. Ethics cannot be taught in 16-week semester. An ethical person by their own cultures’ standards is developed over a lifetime. If these applicants did not realize their actions were wrong on some level then they find themselves following in the same footsteps of other ethically challenged leaders (i.e. Enron and WorldCom for starters).

Robin Hubbard
Columbia, Missouri



 

 

The ethics of this situation are not completely clear from draft from 10 rounds to three in 1988 and to its current two rounds in 1989 diminished the number of players a team could obtain.

Still, team executives across the league said, the draft is essential.

"That never changes," Memphis Grizzlies vice president of basketball operations Jerry West said. "It's really vitally important."

The draft will always be important as long as there's a chance to land an Allen Iverson, a Tim Duncan, a Dirk Nowitzki, a Yao Ming or a LeBron James. But it's also a way to add missing pieces, find complementary players and develop for the future.

Even more, the draft is an annual allowance. Free agency depends on salary-cap space, which is rarely available. Trades are limited by a host of restrictions and require the cooperation of another party.

But teams are guaranteed two draft picks for each season, which they can use to choose players or trade. Moreover, the picks come at a good price because of the collective bargaining agreement's rookie contract scale.

"That's how you get new players," said Tony DiLeo, Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president and assistant general manager. "If you look at our team, we went to the Finals in 2001, we knew we were getting older and (started) trying to rebuild. We drafted Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver (acquired in a draft-day deal with New Jersey), Andre Iguodala.

"The thing is with the rookie scale, you're getting a great deal, especially if you pick up high. Basically, you're getting a bargain on players for three or four years."

The draft's role in championship basketball is clear, especially in recent history. All but one of the last 20 championship teams included at least two major contributors they acquired through the draft.

The exception was the 2004 champion Detroit Pistons. The only player in the heart of the lineup the Pistons drafted is Tayshaun Prince. Detroit's ability to build a championship-caliber team through other means does underscore how the emphasis on the draft has changed over the years.

There was a time when the draft was the primary way to construct a team. But then free agency began in 1988, giving teams another way to acquire players. That same year, the draft was reduced to three rounds, then was shrunk to two rounds a year later, significantly trimming the amount of talent teams could hoard.

The influx of international and high school players increased the draft's risk exponentially. As a result, teams often have opted for the quicker fixes by trading their draft picks for what appeared to be more of a sure thing.

"The thing that's made it so much more difficult is that you have teams vying for so many more players," West said. "It's a lot more difficult to evaluate players than before. People have scouts all over the world. It is a lot more complex."

But despite it all, experts said, the draft will remain an important entity in the NBA because it has too much to offer in terms of hope and help. You can get Jermaine O'Neal at No. 17, Michael Finley at No. 21 or Gilbert Arenas in the second round.

"This draft is the biggest time of year (for executives)," Donn Nelson, Dallas Mavericks president of basketball operations, said. "This is what we work toward the whole year. This is our final exam."

That's why, somewhere, Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O'Conner is in the front row of a Tae Bo class, getting in shape to spend his five picks. Somewhere, New Jersey Nets president Rod Thorn is in a gymnasium giving a punching bag all he's got and Toronto general manager Rob Babcock is working on breathing techniques to a yoga video.

They have to be ready. The future of their respective franchises is at stake.

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