ABSTRACT
There exists a caricatural view of the Internet, which prevents a constructive reflection on financial resources for creative activities and culture. Those who adopt this view see the development of on-line non-market sharing as a black hole that would swallow up the cultural economy whole, and with it culture itself. They also imagine that the Internet could become an Eldorado for new cultural industries to flourish in, as long as the scarcity of copies of works which is the rule in the realm of physical carriers would also be enforced in the digital sphere. Ms. Christine Albanel, the former French Minister for Culture, expressed this view in its purest form in the explanatory memorandum for her 2008 “Internet & Creation” bill: It is now possible to turn digital networks, for the benefit of consumers, into a true dematerialized goods distribution tool, particularly in the cultural arena. This will only be possible, however, if intellectual property rights are respected. Yet, at the same time, the conditions for the creation of these works have never been more threatened. In 2006, billions of pirated files containing musical and audiovisual works were exchanged in France. 1 We address this view in further detail in Chapter 11.
