ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses what are essentially issues of public policy and social ethics, rather than questions of the technology itself. The information-processing technologies that are empowering the new revolution may eventually have more impact on human organization – public and private – than did the mass production revolution, powered first by steam. Software differs from the types of devices usually granted patents: it has many components; independent invention of the same technique is common; many equivalent procedures can be used to achieve the same purpose; similar procedures can be used for different purposes. Businesses and governments that advocate strong control over who has access to information often do so because they are concerned that information will ‘get into the wrong hands’ or people with malicious intent will destroy their information and profits. The former scramble information so that only the person with the key can decode the encrypted information.
