Download ist Diebstahl? Eigentum in einer digitalen Welt

Abstract

From the beginning the commercialization of world wide web has been accompanied by discussions about Intellectual Property Rights. Here two positions can be identified: Claiming strong property protection for digital goods through special measures of technology and legislation and emphasizing on „information wants to be free“, proclaiming that strong property protection more likely will be a hindrance for research and development. Though the two positions seem to be quite contrary, the article tries to show, that both originate from the same philosophical and political approach based on John Locke and his modern advocate Douglass North. Karl Marx fundamentally critizised this approach presenting an alternative view of role and function of property in capitalistic economies. Following this method of analysis it is indicated that changes in property regimes on the basis of digital technology seem to be a vanguard of modernised capitalism.