NYU demands student protesters write confessions for the crime ofbreaking rules with a protest.

This reminds the author of the imposed self-criticism sessions in China. It reminds me ofthe "apologies" that are demanded of people who are canceled.

I think it should be possible, by careful use of irony, to cast doubt on university'sproclaimed ethical conclusions while nominally "confessing".

As for using episodes of The Simpsons to pose ethical questions, I think they are as goodas any other story for the purpose of starting a conversation about ethics. What makesthe Simpsons so much fun is that it includes irony and doubts its presuppositions. Butwatching The Simpsons may raise real moral issues.

Can anyone tell me whether the contracts students must agree to in order to access thematerials for this exercise includes a promise not to redistribute copies of thematerials? For instance, episodes of The Simpsons?

Does carrying out the exercise require running nonfree software — perhaps an app, ornonfree JavaScript code from that site?

If so, I think the kind of ethics being taught here is, "Obey the powerful and the laws they have imposed."

The article uses the term "hacking" to refer tocracking — please keep this distinction in mind when you write about either of them.