Business Ethics Case Study Peter Paulson's offer to provide previous case documents to Steven Craig is professionally unethical but morally permissible. Furthermore, I believe that the offer was not theft but a detention by right and permission. His actions are a great example of how professional ethics and morals do not always align when analyzing a case. Part (1) Peter Paulson's offering, while helpful, complies with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers code. As an expert witness for a previous case against PPC, Peter Paulson was exposed to some documents that would help with the current lawsuit against the same company. The code states in 137.63.c.4 that "The engineer shall not give, offer or promise to pay or deliver, directly or indirectly, any commission, gift, favour, gratuity, benefit or reward as an inducement to secure any specific activity of engineering job or assignment." In Peter's case he was asked to "secure specific engineering work" for a fee. The practice of sharing public documents is professionally legal and ethical, but when compensation is procured for the transaction the act becomes unethical. In both cases the documents were public because they were judicial documents that could be obtained by any lawyer. When Peter imposed a fee on public records, his actions violated the code and made his offering professionally unethical. Part (II) Table 1. “Offer” Trailing Line Showing Non-Theft (from Peter's Point of View) Feature Theft The Offer Non-Theft Right No --------------- ------X--------- YesPermission not allowed ------ ------------------------- -X---- Permitted(1) Peter's possession of the documents does not constitute theft based on his right and permission to have them. Peter had the right to obtain possession of the documents from the court due to his role in a previous case.