I was reading a post by Seth Godin today that discussed unethical dealings of companies online. According to Seth, “There’s something about the mechanics and arms-length nature of the web that just begs companies that know better to treat people in a way that they’d be humiliated to try face to face.”
In much the same way, perfectly decent humans who would never walk into a convenience store, slip something into their pocket and walk out, have no problem downloading “cracked” versions of software or sharing thousands of songs for free with perfect strangers across file-sharing sites.
As this thing we call the internet grows and we learn to adapt to less and less human interaction in our transactions, let us all not forget that anonymity and distance are never an excuse to dismiss morality.
