By: David Williams Russell
Partner, Harrison & Moberly, LLP Indianapolis, Indiana

A. Overview.
Government scientists and contractors came up with what has developed into the global Internet. They developed technology affording an accurate, secure way of sharing communications and access to stored information. When commercial possibilities for the Internet began to be perceived, they began to devise methods of protecting the ownership and control of the hardware and software affording the means of Internet communications eventually, to maintain dominance over the actual information transmitted and stored. As the technology developed, they eventually devised ways to screen out unwanted or inappropriate users or communication and to allocate access to information amongst themselves.
It is not obvious, but not surprising, that the evolution of the law of e-commerce has proceeded along the same path as, and in response to the same concerns as, the Internet technology itself and that commercial Internet laws are concerned with exactly the concerns of the Internet developers.
Laws and rules developed to regulate international trade, including trade conducted by e-commerce, must be analyzed in the context of the underlying trade concerns they address, which are:
• Commercial Internet laws build on existing trade laws, enabling effective and enforceable transactions via accurate and secure communications.
• Internet ownership laws exist to protect both the communications technology and the knowledge communicated and stored in cyberspace.
• Europe and America differ over the rights of individuals to privacy, personal information, and access to and ownership of knowledge as opposed to the rights of businesses to exploit such knowledge for gain. The resolution of these differences will shape the trade Internet, and knowledge ownership laws of the 21st Century.
Using these concerns to classify and analyze emerging United States and European laws, we shall examine some cross-cultural trends in e-commerce, particularly the differing views of individual property rights between Europe and the United States, which are likely to influence the battle to answer what will be the major knowledge ownership question of the 21st Century.
That question? Who owns knowledge itself?

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