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modems, they developed an open culture of lar web-sites, and collecting data profiles of
free content sharing and collaborative work users. The ability to freely exchange identical
on software codes. The sociable uses of the copies of digital content on the net alerted
net gave rise to increasingly far-flung ‘virtual first the music and later also the film indus-
communities’, such as those on the Whole try. Their lobby efforts led in the USA to the
Earth Lectronic Link, the electronic bulletin Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),
board system better known under its abbrevi- which severely restricted the previous user
ation as the WELL, which was founded in rights to fair use of cultural content. Large-
the Bay Area of San Francisco in 1985 by scale non-commercial peer-to-peer file-shar-
Stewart Brand and vividly described by ing networks (P2P) were more or less
Rheingold (1993). NGOs soon recognized effectively shut down and replaced by profit-
3
the potential of these network technologies seeking content providers. Corporations
for their efforts to build linkages not with vested interests in patents and copy-
only among activists across the USA but rights had already exercised their influence
also abroad. The San Francisco-based on the Trade Round on Intellectual Property
Association for Progressive Communication and Services (TRIPS) and model laws
(APC) spearheaded the outreach efforts to prepared by the World Intellectual Property
global civil society and played a pivotal role Organization (WIPO) and the United Nations
in setting up nodes in scores of countries Commission on International Trade
around the world. Law (UNCITRAL) (Sell, 2003; UNCI-
TRAL, 1998), which in turn were to shape
the legal definitions of the participating
countries (Schulz, 2002). The world-wide
Phase III (mid-1990s to the present)
computer networks are the technology
The third phase is characterized by increased behind the global trade in financial deriva-
commercialization. It began with the intro- tives and the accelerated circulation of capi-
duction of graphical user interfaces, which tal. In principle, they would allow a taxation
lowered the threshold of skills required for of these flows, which could then be used to
using a computer and facilitated navigation fund supranational agencies and cooperative
on the rapidly expanding World Wide Web. initiatives; but there is insufficient political
The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), will to do this.
which was crucial for the construction of the The competition-based mode of develop-
World Wide Web, was developed with public ment failed to solve the problems posed by
funding in the European research center, digital inequalities and the needs of citizens
CERN, but private companies took the lead for a global media infrastructure supportive
in developing a plethora of software applica- of a democratic public sphere. The World
tions and in providing access to the net. Bank, the International Monetary Fund
America Online (AOL) and other companies (IMF), and the OECD continue to push coun-
became the most popular access providers of tries toward privatization and liberalization
the then privatized Internet for an exponen- of their telecommunication sectors with the
tially increasing number of subscribers. The argument that competition brings down
market for computers and software was soon prices. But this is only true under the condi-
dominated by IBM-compatible hardware and tion that strong state regulation is capable of
Microsoft’s proprietary operating systems creating and enforcing level playing fields.
2
and applications. As the number of users A private oligopoly that captures its regula-
began to represent an ever-growing con- tory agency is not necessarily performing
sumer market, advertising companies any better than a well-run state provider. The
invented new techniques of sending out elec- main problem, however, in many poorer
tronic spam, integrating pop-up ads on popu- countries with a high degree of social