In the ever-changing realm of the Internet, lawmakers face a steady stream of new areas potentially requiring regulation and oversight. This book is part of a series exploring the dynamic universe of the 21st century. Collected here are papers discussing the wide range of topics impacting Internet expansion, E-commerce, computerised voting, and cyber-security threats. Such a selection makes this volume important to developing an overview of the key issues in the dynamic and wired world.

Spans the relationships among business, ethics, and society by including numerous entries that feature broad coverage of corporate social responsibility, the obligation of companies to various stakeholder groups, the contribution of business to society and culture, and the relationship between organizations and the quality of the environment.

The internet has become so widespread that such issues as access, regulation and related policies have become major factors in the economy and social fabric of societies in every part of the world. Peoples without running water are demanding access to the internet and those without it are becoming deprived citizens. This new book examines current issues of interest to the blossoming area.

Access to the Internet is an increasing problem in many areas of the world. As the popularity and usefulness of the Internet increases on a daily basis, lack of access to the technology is putting many groups at a disadvantage in terms of better education, better jobs and even in terms of higher levels of civic participation. However, creating a network infrastructure to serve outlying communities and sectors of the population is not straight-forward. This book brings together all the aspects of the problem – technical, regulatory and economic - into one volume to provide a comprehensive resource. It describes the latest technological advances that allow cost-effective network infrastructures to be built, and places them in the context of the applications and services that the infrastructure will deliver. A section on business models and case studies from North American and Europe demonstrate that the solutions are economically and practically viable. This book is essential for anyone looking to gain an understanding of the issues and technology surrounding the access debate. It will be of particular relevance to network engineers/designers/planners at the incumbent operator companies charged with delivering broadband access to as yet unconnected regions. Governments and regulatory bodies will also find this a useful guide to the problems that they may face.

The Internet revolution has come. Some say it has gone. In The Future of Ideas, Lawrence Lessig explains how the revolution has produced a counterrevolution of potentially devastating power and effect. Creativity once flourished because the Net protected a commons on which widest range of innovators could experiment. But now, manipulating the law for their own purposes, corporations have established themselves as virtual gatekeepers of the Net while Congress, in the pockets of media magnates, has rewritten copyright and patent laws to stifle creativity and progress. Lessig weaves the history of technology and its relevant laws to make a lucid and accessible case to protect the sanctity of intellectual freedom. He shows how the door to a future of ideas is being shut just as technology is creating extraordinary possibilities that have implications for all of us. Vital, eloquent, judicious and forthright, The Future of Ideas is a call to arms that we can ill afford to ignore.