Exactly, I don't see how it would be practical to work in the software field in any existing society, consistent with ACM's Principle 1. The most salient examp

Exactly, I don't see how it would be practical to work in the software field in any existing society, consistent with ACM's Principle 1. The most salient example is that, to make a living in their occupation in a capitalist country, most software engineers (and developers, architects, managers, related categories) must work for commercial companies whose business models rely on lock-in tactics, licensing that forces users to submit to data-mining in order to use the products, undermining functionality for users to benefit third parties, and other arguable abuses. Even using a licence more restrictive than GPL seems to me unethical and against public interest, but would exclude the majority of employment prospects. Of course not everyone agrees on the preceding point - many believe commercialization of software is perfectly ethical. Similarly there is disagreement over whether working for, say, the NSA would be ethical. And such differences in turn point up the hazard of any one organization's vision of ethical conduct being pushed on an industry. The ultimate hazard is codes of conduct becoming defacto enforced in hard or soft state policies. The ACM does not appear to be advocating that at the moment (nor is the parent poster I'm replying to), but that is where this sort of thing leads.