The battle over the institutional ecosystem in the digital environment

Abstract

The article presents information on the tussle over institutional ecosystem in the digital environment. One is in the midst of pitched battle over spoils of the transformation to a digitally networked environment and the information economy. Stakeholders from the older economy are using legislation, judicial opinions and international treaties to retain the old structure of organizing production so they continue to control the empires they've built or inherited. Copyright law and other intellectual property, broadcast law, spectrum-management policy and e-commerce law are all being warped to fit the size of the hierarchical organizations of yesteryear. In the process, they are stifling the evolution of the distributed, peer-based models of information production and exchange. As economic policy, letting yesterday's winners dictate the terms of tomorrow's economic competition is disastrous. As social policy, missing an opportunity to enrich our freedom and enhance the justice while maintaining or even enhancing the productivity is unforgivable.