Internet Information - Essay Example

Is information on the Internet truly free, or should copyrighted music or software be protected? Although not everything you need can be found on theWeb, most of the information therein is free. The only obvious factor that would limit your ability to find data is whether someone has placed it there for you to find. Since access to the internet has relatively grown to cover billions of users, the possibility today is boundless in regard to access to information. There is an ever-increasing number of Internet portal sites that want to cater to a user’s every online need.

These sites provide numerous degrees and types of information customization enabling user to create and upload data in his or her own personalized page. This individual can select any type of content, from news, stock information, documents, applications, music and movies, among others. That is why a good number of Internet users believe that the Web should remain free and open information space equally accessible to all both retrieving and publishing information.However, as the Internet evolves, it is now increasingly being regulated by authorities because it started to hurt industries and publishers in the dissemination of the digitized products that they sell.

The music, film and software industries were the hardest hit, for instance. The term Internet piracy was coined to describe the unauthorized use – sale, trade, lease, distribution, uploading for transmission, transmission or public performance of a copyrighted material. (Lieberman & Esgate 2002, p. 306)Copyright violations led a huge multi-pronged anti-piracy effort with intellectual property interests successfully lobbying governments to change laws to enhance protection and to shut down troublesome sites.

Napster, a popular web application that features free file-sharing of digitized media, was forced to cease operations by these efforts.Unbridled freedom in the internet is dangerous. I underscore this due to the significance of the web technology which allows rapid and inexpensive duplication of information. Intellectual property has never been vulnerable. In Europe alone, software piracy cost businesses a whooping $3 billion due to illegal duplication and distribution. Untold number of businesses, employees, publishers, artists and writers are suffering economic losses because of this piracy.

However, I have reservation whether controlling or regulating the information in the internet is the solution to the problem. This is of course besides the traditional intellectual property statutes across countries which might cover specific scenarios. I believe the answer lies on technology itself. Digitized materials, copyrighted information, softwares – these could be encrypted and protected so that illegal distribution could be prevented. The Internet is designed to be accessed and not to keep people away.

The notion that works in digital form can be controlled following a general notion of extensive control over information and ideas – as is suggested by a comprehensive copyright infringement laws – assaults the internet as a public domain. In effect, this challenges the very notion of the concept in general. If in the Internet information and ideas can be controlled, then why not other public domains such as the media perhaps. This is the reason why, according to Meir Perez Pugatch (2006) a workable global definition of the standard copyright in terms of Internet use have quite simply not been resolved to this day. (p. 285)ReferencesLiberman, A.

and Esgate, P. (2002). The Entertainment Marketing Revolution. FT Press.Pugatch, M. (2006) The Intellectual Property Debate: Perspectives from Law, Economics and Political Economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.