Evaluated December 2021
The module provides a skeletal outline for a class discussion on the possible conflict between property rights and free speech rights in the context of cloud computing. The module uses, as a case study, Amazon Web Services’ denial of service to Wikileaks in 2010 when WikiLeaks was publishing US government documents leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. It could be used in a Cloud Computing or Cloud Networking course and an Information Security course.
This module covers material in Information Assurance and Security/Security Policy and Governance, Parallel and Distributed Computing/Cloud Computing.
Instructors adopting this module will find that the module is flexible enough that other denial of service case studies could be substituted for the Amazon/WikiLeaks case study if an instructor chose to do so; however, instructors will need to explore the best way this may be accomplished. Preparation for instruction may need to include identification of additional background readings, and it may be helpful to explore the work of Harvard Law Professor Yochai Benkler which provides a rigorous analysis of the case and surrounding events. Interdisciplinary collaboration could be helpful here, especially connecting with faculty from legal studies, philosophy of political science to explore the best way to present the case and facilitate student discussion. Instructors could create a discussion experience more welcoming of diverse points of view for this case by assuming, for the sake of discussion, that WikiLeaks did nothing illegal and that Amazon denied service to WikiLeaks not for legal reasons but because Amazon claimed that the documents published by WikiLeaks violated some other aspect of their policy. For example, Amazon claimed that the documents published by WikiLeaks could cause harm to innocent people. Although this approach raises additional factual and moral issues, it may be more effective than the stolen documents angle because here Amazon is asserting its legal/moral right to decide how its property, the cloud services, are used. Since this acts as a standalone lesson, faculty leading the presentation of the module will need to outline the case, as identified above and create the overall structure of student classroom discussions and/or other activities. To better prepare students for the case, background readings may be assigned to students to provide a richer interpretation of positive and negative rights and the way in which the interests of cloud users and cloud owners do not always align. Finally, students will need to be aware of the net neutrality debate and the ethical issues at stake.
Assessment for this module is well framed through presented learning objectives listed in the “Module Goals” section. However, instructors will need to develop a specific plan or method for assessment of student learning. Since the module does not generalize beyond the case study presented, assessments will need to be specific to the internal dimensions of the case and will not be able to discern the extent to which students develop a more universal sense of ethics or transformative understandings.
The evaluation of this module was led by Patrick Anderson and Marty J. Wolf as part of the Mozilla Foundation Responsible Computer Science Challenge. Emanuelle Burton, Judy Goldsmith, Colleen Greer, Darakhshan Mir, Jaye Nias and Evan Peck also made contributions. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.