Question

You work for a small advertising agency in Greengrass, N.Y. The agency’s principal
advertising clients are automobile dealers and automobile repair shops. The agency has a good
record of placing advertisements for its clients in both real-space and on the internet.
Last week, you were considering buying a used car, and you found a web-site called
“CarValues.com.” The web site contains a database of information about used vehicles on the
market. The (searchable) database contains dealer-written factual descriptions of the make,
model, color and condition of the vehicle; the number of miles on the vehicle; how long the
vehicle has been on the market; and the price history of the vehicle (what it was originally
offered for, and any subsequent price reductions).
The web site was very helpful to you as a consumer. The data base also contained
information about past used-car sales in the area for the prior 6 months. The formatting on
CarValues.com was not good, and the interface was not user-friendly. You are confident the
developers who work for your company would have created a more user-friendly website.
When you got to work on Monday, a light bulb went on in your head. Why don’t we
create a car-selling website for our advertising clients? They would love it. All we need is a
database to start with. And one is available – right there on the internet, at CarValues.com. So,
you go back and check. There was no Terms of Use Agreement!!! Their data is right there for the
taking. Once we have the data, our company can update the information on our own going
forward without having to copy it from CarValues. But being able to use the CarValues
information would help us get started right away.
Your technician says he can capture all the existing data in minutes. Then your
organization can do the updating going forward as new cars come on the market and existing
ones are sold.
You mention your idea to, Carla Speil, the head of the agency at lunch. She is intrigued.
But is it legal? What are the potential consequences if CarValues.com finds out? ...She sees the
rewards.... But what are the risks? “Should we do it?,” she asks. Unusual for an advertising
executive, she seemed concerned about the ethics.
Write a one-page memo, Ms. Speil says, answering her questions.

Answer 1

Well, for an organization it is very important that that it grows to new heights, but on same time, it is also important to maintain the ethics of the organization.

Every organization has their set values which they should abide by, while doing anything related to the organization.

If we talk about this case, the company, CarValues. Com, whose data is being planned to be copied for that particular agency, has given its own efforts in exploring the markets and collecting details of every car that is to be sold. Copying those data by other companies is not ethical.

This is not ethical as well as carries risk. Following are the risk associated with it:

If the company gets to know that their data is being copied by some other company, they could file case against that company as that company has patent rights in those data.

There is chance that the copying company could loose their reputation and this may affect their goodwill as well.

It is a type of fraud not only with the company but with the customers too.

Therefore practising such activities should be prohibited. We already saw the risks associated with this.

The company of has a good user interface, it can have its advantage by fair means. People in the company should think of plans that would be their original and this could mitigate all different types of risks too.

As the question has been asked above, should it be done. The straight answer to this is no. It should not be done. Every data and information a company is using, is their own and no any one has the right to copy those data. It takes huge efforts to people in the company, for collecting data

Instead one thing can be done that is, as it was mentioned that CarValues is not having a good interface, then this company should approach them and offer them that they could provide their interface and if in return they would agree to share their part of data, it is of no issue then. But with any information to the respective company if it is done, it is not at all ethical.