| Abstract: |
Internet growth has allowed unprecedented widespread access to cultural
creation including music and films, 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 benefits 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 first 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 efficiency of efforts to
reduce the availability of copyrighted creations that are available for
non-authorized free download. |