27.04.2005
A new front in the ever-lasting struggle for social freedom has been opened: it's all about access to knowledge, information and non-material goods. The growth of legislation on monopoly over information (often called Intellectual property Law by some lawyers), threaten to further emphasize the social differences, slow down scientific development, expand monopolization of knowledge and finally concentrate power in the hands of big corporations.
The fact that this non-material segments of production are central to the process of construction of tomorrows Information society led to development of legislation which puts the control upon them.
Created once to protect and encourage progressive inventions, in the time of digital information that is not exhausted by its use, they became the obstacle to the development process and steel door of a new networked society.
By creation of rules in the field of economy of knowledge, rich countries assured constant flow of funds from third world countries. Good case of corporate profit being put over public interest are pharmaceutical industries that use this laws to protect their own profits, while one third of the world's population lacks access to essential drugs.
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