COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND THE INFORMATION SOCIETY DUTCH PERSPECTIVES F. Willem Grosheide IIB I ss to works onli 1.1 The right to information 1.1.1 General It may here be taken for grantedthat since the second half of the 20th century the Infomation Society may now be considered as running parallel to the 19th century Industral Society. One of the strik ing effects of this development particularly made possible by the spread of digital technology is the commodification of information, ie. today information, together with physical goods is the raw material socio-economic and cultural life in the industralised world. As a consequence, if the question of access to property and ownership of physical goods was a major issue in the 1gth century, this became equally true for the question of access to property and the ownership of infomation in the 20th century. Besides, since the rapid and broad extension of transborder socio-economic and cultural exchange is another characteristic of daily life in the late 20th century industrialised societies, the effects of the said commodification are at the same time experienced on a world wide basis. 3 Understandably, the indicated development has influenced and still influences the national and international legal environment with regard to access to information For the Netherlands, belonging to the Western part of the industrialised world, this means that its legal environment has gradually become less detemm ined by domestic and more by European developments. European developments on two levels: that of the Council of Europe, ie. the European Convention on Human Rights(ECHR), and that of the European Union, ie the Treaty of Rome/(EC Treaty). In light of the Treaty of Rome, adaptatin of national Dutch law to EU legis lative actions in the domain of copyright law and related law should be mentioned From the various directives that are in force in this respect in particuar mention should be made of the recent Copyright Harmonisation Directive(CHD). Apart from this, the legal environment has to be constantly adapted to transnational developments such those instigated by(non-)governmental bodies likeUNO, WTO and the WIPO. The Dr. F Willem Grosheide is Professor of Private Law and Intellectu engraaffInstitute/centerforIntellectualPropertyLawUniversityUtrecht(www.cier.nl)and practis ng lawyer at Van Doome Amsterdam. An effort is made to write ths paper as strictly as possible following a questionnare prepared by Professor Xavier Linant de Bellefonds, General Reporter, Faculte de Droit de Paris Xll, France, adding, however, issues that seem of partcular interest from a Dutch perspective. An early account of this development can be found n E.W. Ploman, L Clark Hamilton, Copyright-ntellectual property in the information age(London 1980) re on thi subject the follow Debora I Halbert Intellectual Property in the Information Age-The Politics of Expanding Ownership Rights(Quorum Books London 1999); Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access- How th Shift from Ownership to Access is Transforming Modem Life( Penguin Books London 2000).COPYRIGHT ISSUES AND THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: DUTCH PERSPECTIVES F. Willem Grosheide* III B 1 1 Access to works online1 1.1 The right to information 1.1.1 General It may here be taken for grantedthat since the second half of the 20th century the Information Society may now be considered as running parallel to the 19th century Industrial Society. One of the striking effects of this development particularly made possible by the spread of digital technology is the commodification of information, i.e. today information, together with physical goods is the raw material of socio-economic and cultural life in the industrialised world. As a consequence, if the question of access to property and ownership of physical goods was a major issue in the 19th century, this became equally true for the question of access to property and the ownership of information in the 20th century.2 Besides, since the rapid and broad extension of transborder socio-economic and cultural exchange is another characteristic of daily life in the late 20th century industrialised societies, the effects of the said commodification are at the same time experienced on a worldwide basis.3 Understandably, the indicated development has influenced and still influences the national and international legal environment with regard to access to information. For the Netherlands, belonging to the Western part of the industrialised world, this means that its legal environment has gradually become less determined by domestic and more by European developments. European developments on two levels: that of the Council of Europe, i.e. the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and that of the European Union, i.e. the Treaty of Rome/(EC Treaty). In light of the Treaty of Rome, adaptatin of national Dutch law to EU legislative actions in the domain of copyright law and related law should be mentioned. From the various directives that are in force in this respect in particular mention should be made of the recent Copyright Harmonisation Directive (CHD). Apart from this, the legal environment has to be constantly adapted to transnational developments such as those instigated by (non-) governmental bodies likeUNO, WTO and the WIPO. The * Dr. F. Willem Grosheide is Professor of Private Law and Intellectual Property Law, Molengraaff Institute/Center for Intellectual Property Law University Utrecht (www.cier.nl) and practising lawyer at Van Doorne Amsterdam. 1. An effort is made to write this paper as strictly as possible following a questionnaire prepared by Professor Xavier Linant de Bellefonds, General Reporter, Faculté de Droit de Paris XII, France, adding, however, issues that seem of particular interest from a Dutch perspective. 2. An early account of this development can be found in E.W. Ploman, L. Clark Hamilton, Copyright-intellectual property in the information age (London 1980). 3. From the already abundant literature on this subject the following sources may be mentioned: Debora J. Halbert, Intellectual Property in the Information Age – The Politics of Expanding Ownership Rights (Quorum Books London 1999); Jeremy Rifkin, The Age of Access - How the Shift from Ownership to Access isTransforming Modern Life (Penguin Books London 2000)