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UNIT FIVE Law and Ethics Unit Overview The final unit in AC640 visits some of the most compelling, difficult, and applied of areas in communication and politics: law and ethics. Week 9 opens with a brief online excerpt from John Stuart Mill’s famous treatise on the necessity of private property, On Liberty. By way of ideological contrast, Michael Perelman’s article on the critical history of intellectual property, offers a compelling overview of a topic that only the foolhardy would find tedious: intellectual property. Intellectual property law is a major means by which society values, protects, and rewards the sum of its intellectual and cultural creativity. Intellectual property is far more than a matter of narrow legalistic interest: it speaks to how a society regulates its own collective cultural development. Perelman criticizes the idea of intellectual property, seeing it as an extension of corporate power over the free exchange of ideas. In the unit notes, and by way of a contemporary voice consistent with Mill’s, conservative critic William Adkinson offers a spirited defense of intellectual property law. Week 10 opens with a brief online essay by Jurgen Habermas, the premier writer on communication and ethics at work today. Habermas is affiliated with the Frankfurt School and the Pragmatism of John Dewey; Martin’s chapter comes from a Pragmatist perspective, and thus finds support in Habermas’ work. We’ll consider his concepts of communicative and instrumental rationality here, in addition to the public sphere. The second week 10 reading offers Randal Martin’s analysis of ethics in the advertising and public relations professions, opens with an introduction to that most ethically sensitive of theoretical traditions in communications, Pragmatism. It concludes with a brief account of one of the newest ethical problems in the communications universe, identity theft— and specifically, phishing. Readings and Resources Week 9: communication and law Michael Perelman. Chapter 1, "The Ascension of Intellectual Property Rights." Steal This Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity. New York: Palgrave, 2002. ISBN: 0-312-29408-5. 31 pages. Week 10: communication and ethics Randal Martin. Chapter 5, “Advertising and Public Relation Ethics.” Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion. Broadview, 2002. ISBN: 1-55111-376-7. 29 pages. Activities and Assignments 5.1 Public Sphere Instructor-led discussion on week’s readings, podcasts, and unit notes 5.2 Campaign 640: Team 7 facilitates classwide discussion Team 7 moderates discussion on the Campaign 640 discussion board 5.3 Campaign 640: Team 8 Presentation Team 8 presents on their choice of topic in the Campaign 640 discusson. 5.4 Public Sphere Instructor-led discussion on week’s readings, podcasts, and unit notes. 5.5 Campaign 640: Team 8 facilitates classwide discussion Team 8 moderates discussion on the Campaign 640 discussion 5.6 MSN chat on key concepts in units 4 and 5 Online tutorial with instructor. Discussion of course material, concepts, and questions. 5.7 Final Exam is due Post the final exam to the appropriate 640 dropbox. 5.8 Optional research papers and critical book reviews are due. Post optional research papers and critical book reviews to the appropriate 640 dropbox. 5.9 Final course evalu