Ethics Scenario #8: Harrisville Family and Children's Service

8. Geraldine is the Webmaster for the Harristown Family and Children’s Service. Geraldine’s Web site is designed to provide the organization’s stakeholders and the public with information that will be useful to improve the quality of their lives, regardless of whether they are paying clients or not. Geraldine routinely surfs the Internet for interesting published articles about the issues of concern to the Service, and copies them to the Web site so that everyone can view them. There is no charge to anyone for viewing these articles, and Geraldine considers this to be a valuable public service.

a. Is Geraldine acting unethically by posting these articles?

b. Is Geraldine violating the law by posting these articles?

c. What should the policy of the organization be with respect to posting published articles such as these?