Internet access: Where law, economy, culture and technology meet

Abstract

Internet growth has allowed unprecedented widespread access to cultural creation including music and lms, to knowledge, and to a wide range of consumer information. At the same time, it has become a huge source of business opportunities. Along with great bene ts that this access to the Internet provides, the open and free access to the Internet has encountered large opposition based on political, economical and ethical reasons. An ongoing battle over the control on Internet access has been escalating on all these fronts. In this paper we describe rst some of the ideological roots of free access to the Internet along with its main opponents. We then focus on the problem of Internet piracy and analyze the e ciency of e orts to reduce the availability of copyrighted creations that are available for non-authorized free download.