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In this area discuss the following: Critics argue that more and more information in digital form is being �fenced off� because of recent copyright legislation.  Yet owners of proprietary information fear that they could lose control of their property without those laws.  How can we achieve an appropriate balance between those who hold legal rights to proprietary information and ordinary users who wish to access, share and communicate that information?

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Since the introduction of digital media, owners and consumers have been trying to figure out the right balance between what is theft, versus legitimate ownership and sharing.  Anyone that creates a product has the right to make money from it, no one can afford to give us TV shows, music, or movies if they continuously lose money.  Having said that, if I buy a CD or Bluray, I can lend it to as many friends as a want, so a lot of people feel that if you download a song or movie, then the same opportunity to share should apply.  We have seen various attempts by companies over the years to either limit the amount of computers a file can download to, or how many times something can be copied, but this has never caught for a few reasons. 

This is definitely a tricky subject, as some studies show that people who torrent digital files usually end up spending more to legitimately buy things than those who don’t.  We are starting to see in the entertainment industry that a person who buys a physical CD or movie can also download a digital copy.  There are also now a number of services that for a monthly fee, lets you have access to millions of songs or thousands of movies.

There will always be a want of the consumer to feel they own something they pay for, and for businesses to make money of their product.  I feel that as internet speeds increase and are available to everyone at a lower cost, we will probably see the majority of digital media being accessed from cloud servers.  This offers more flexibility for consumers and businesses and if it is offered at a reasonable price and easily accessible without unnecessary restrictions, I feel this will be the best balance.

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