Q: My husband bought a device that can block the signals of cellphone users who annoy him. Isn’t his vigilante behavior worse than that of the rudest cell user?
– Name Withheld, Connecticut
A: Your husband may not stifle someone’s behavior merely because he deems it annoying. Living among other people requires us to tolerate conduct we find vexing.
Or so my head tells me. But my heart says, Your husband is a hero, an acoustic Robin Hood who robs from the rude and gives blessed silence to the poor in spirit.
I propose these guidelines: If someone is yammering into a cellphone on the pavement and you don’t like it, walk away. But if someone is using a cellphone in a closed space – on a commuter train, in a restaurant – from which you cannot escape, let the jamming begin.
Sadly, this solution – ethical, courteous and humane – is frowned on by the FCC.
…
Q: My firm is the sole producer of a promotional item that our customers, well-
known companies, place in hotel rooms. Having produced a batch for one company, I was approached by another to do the same and ship it to the same city at the same time for the same event. Only one of these items can go in each room, and I fear that the second customer will gobble up hotel rooms that would have gone to my first. Must I decline the second order?
– Belinda Smith, San Diego
A: Unless you promised your first customer an exclusive on this item, there is no legal barrier to selling to the second. But ethics sets a more stringent standard. If the first customer believed that you would not sell to a direct competitor, you should honor that unspoken – indeed, unmade – agreement. It is good ethics and good business not to deceive a customer, even passively. The best way to find out what customer No.1 assumes? Ask. And in the future, make it explicit whether or not a customer will be the only one to have this mysterious item.
UPDATE: Smith spoke to her first customer, who had no objections to her taking an order from the second. The two are not direct competitors, and there are plenty of hotel rooms for each of them.
Send questions and comments for Randy Cohen to Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111, or ethicist@nytimes.com.
