Interaction between Policy and Technology: An Assessment in the Aftermath of the World Summit on the Information Society

摘要

This multidisciplinary conference provides a unique opportunity to underline the linkage between policy and technology. There are many evidences that technology may not be politically neutral, and conversely that specific policy frameworks are not technology neutral. P2P technology revolutionized access to digital content for information and recreation, facing policy makers with two options : repression within a rigid legal framework or trying to find new ways so that content creators may receive a fair financial contribution. A global patronage scheme (http://globalpatronage.org) is being proposed. In the case of scientific information, the WSIS (http://www.wsis.org) recommended the use of P2P, but the paradox is that the reflection of this advance in national laws and in daily scholarly practice has been slow. Concerning Free Software, if access and modification to computer code is considered as an essential expression of human freedom and accepted as a matter of public policy, the consequences in terms of software development are staggering, and in our opinion, quite beneficial.