Internet Policy Issues and Digital Libraries' Management of Intellectual Property

The policy issues posed by the Internet in different countries around the world do not seem to be very different. The Internet itself helps us realize this by allowing governments and citizens everywhere to share their problems and solutions. How different governments react to the Internet depends on the extent to which they are prepared to accept external influences. The continued growth of the Internet for personal, government, and business purposes is now being affected by a number of policy issues. The discussions in this chapter center on these various Internet policy issues. These are the issues of content on the Internet, equal access, copyright, and protection of intellectual property. The chapter also considers the emerging Internet policy issues such as privacy and security, and explores the basic principles for managing intellectual property in the digital environment and then suggests the tools for managing intellectual property by digital libraries.