ethical_codex.md

DRAFT!!!!

The Gradesta Ethical Codex

This Ethical codex applies to Commercial ventures run under the Gradesta brand. It does not have any effect on the application of Gradesta open source licenses or the ability of third parties to use Gradesta software in any way that they desire.

Core Value 1: Consent

We do not engage in or facilitate non-consensual transactions (commercial or otherwise) including those involving non-human animals and children. This value has a wide array of applications:

1. Animal agriculture: Animals are incapable of giving consent. Therefore, we will not produce or market any products intended for use in the animal agriculture industry. We will also not consume animal products on company dime. So if food is provided by Gradesta, for example at an event, it will only be vegan.

2. Advertising: We won't sell our user's time without their consent. We will not use automated systems such as telerobots and unsolicited emails. We will not use video/animated or audio advertisements or any other type of advertisement that is specifically intended to grab the user's attention despite the user's concerted effort to focus on something else. Nor will we use or allow on our commercial platforms advertisements that cover content or require the users to click away. As a company policy, we will actively discourage content which is primarily funded by advertising.

3. Medical testing: Medical testing on animals and children is typically non-consensual. We will not engage in or work directly on projects that do this, unless they have an internal ethical codex that ensures that the testing is in the interest of the subjects. For lab rats this is rarely the case, however, this might be the case for children dying of leukemia. This restriction does not prevent researchers from using gradesta platforms. It only prevents gradesta from knowingly and actively engaging in such experiments.

4. Likenesses: This is a tricky case. Generally if someone's picture or likeness is on our platform and that person contacts us and asks us to remove that picture, we will remove it. However, in some instances, it may be in the public's interest to non-consensualy view a picture, for example, the famous portrait of Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre may be of public interest, even if Prince Andrew does not want to have the image distributed.

5. Conscientious objection: Should a worker find a particular task to be ethically objectionable and there is another task that they are equally capable of fulfilling which they do not find to be objectionable. They should be able to choose the other task or project without repercussions.

6. Business Transparency: In order for our customers to provide informed consent when engaging in business with us, our customers should always know our business model and how we make money. We make money by providing value to our customers, not through trickery.

7. Employee consent: Employees should want to work for Gradesta. If we find out that they are seeking work elsewhere they will not be punished for doing so. It is fine for employees to post their resumes on a jobs site. Employees are free people, not serfs.

Core Value 2: Environment, Habitat, and Biodiversity

Internal business operations will be conducted in such a way as to minimize their impact on the environment, sustainability and biodiversity. This has impacts on several factors:

1. Campuses and offices. Any land owned or operated by Gradesta will be operated in such a way as to strictly increase the native biodiversity of the land and must never decrease the land's biodiversity. One example of how land can be managed to increase biodiversity is planting a variety of native plants and using green roofs and structures designed to be used by nesting birds and insects.

2. Non carbon neutral business travel should be limited and conducted in as carbon neutral manner as reasonable.

3. Direct consumption: Food packaging, office supplies, and marketing materials must be sustainable to the extent possible. We will prefer non-packaged food and food in re-usable packaging to packaged food and biodegradable food packaging to non-biodegradable. Sustainability must be prioritized when choosing office supplies and marketing materials.

Core Value 3: Don't stifle innovation

While most software Gradesta will produce is Free Open Source Software, there is nothing in our codex against producing proprietary software and/or patenting inventions. However, one of our core values is to never use patents to stifle innovation. We will always be willing to license our patents individually, and for a reasonable price, even to direct competitors.

Core Value 4: Family & Friends

Our workers must be able to spend time with their family if they wish. This also applies to "de-facto" family members, such as non-married partners and their children.

1. Displacement: We should avoid separating families. We should not force, pressure or encourage workers to relocate without their family. If relocation is necessary we should make sure we take into account the costs of family relocation and re-emberse those costs to the extent reasonable.

2. Sickness: Workers should be able to take unpaid time off to spend time with sick family members without repercussions to their careers.

3. Children: Unless the law provides better, workers with long term contracts should receive 6 months paid leave (paid at a livable wage, not necessarily the same wage as full time work) to use during the first two years of each of their children's lives. Workers with long term contracts may take unpaid leave for up to 3 years during the first 7 years of their children's lives without loosing their positions. We do not discriminate by gender/sex in any of our dealings including this one.

Core Value 5: That's not all

This document only includes values that are likely to differ from those of other businesses. Other values such as legality, safe workplaces, preventing harassment ect. also apply. These values are intentionally excluded from this document in order to reduce its length, however they are no less important to us. Just to recap some of the basics:

1. Singling out or excluding coworkers on the basis of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or politics should be avoided so as to create a safe and welcoming work environment for everyone (This covers sexual harassment).
2. Workers should be hired, paid and promoted fairly. Hiring, promotions and compensation should be analyzed on an annual basis in order to uncover and address systematic bias.
3. Workers from other, less wealthy, countries should not be seen as "cheep labor", or hired as such. They should be seen as equal peers and paid accordingly.
4. Religious workers should not be required to work on their holy days.
5. That's not all. If you work for us and you see something you find unethical you are free to share your concerns with me (Timothy Hobbs) and you will not by punished for doing so with one big caveat: if you raise concerns about an ethical issue and we do not agree on a resolution, you must not intentionally disrupt the workplace or publicly defame us in order to pressure the company.