Anomalies in Internet Law
Proceedings of the 22nd Bileta conference, University of Hertfortshire: Hatfield
10 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2008 Last revised: 27 Feb 2014
Date Written: April 7, 2011
Abstract
Modern information technology has brought a flood of new possibilities. It has become a lot cheaper and easier to communicate with other people anywhere in the world and to send each other music files, video clips, texts and pictures. Rather than just enjoying these new possibilities, many governments, companies and even individuals try to stop others from using these new technologies to their full potential. Of course these "frustrating agents" have good reasons for their efforts: their interests are harmed or potentially harmed. The music industry, as well as other "content" providers, has been very active in trying to stop new technologies being applied. Furthermore, governments have constantly tried to forbid or restrict the use of new technologies, often referring to interests such as crime control, security and privacy.
Not only are these efforts often contradictory - the music industry would have an interest in cheap means of transportation for their products and governments undermine the privacy of their citizens in order to protect their right to security- but there are additional problems. National governments (as well as the EU) have introduced a confusing system of new rules in order to protect intellectual property rights. They have accepted that the content providers could introduce new technologies that harmed the property rights of consumers: so called Digital Rights Management systems. When it became apparent, however, that these technologies were not effective, more new rules were introduced, not to solve the problem of the legal protection of property rights, but to make it illegal to try to circumvent digital rights management techniques. In this paper, an attempt is made to identify the anomalies referred to here, to explain them and to suggest some new ways for governments, firms and individuals to deal with new technologies.
Keywords: Information Society, Internet Law, Directives, Legal Concepts
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