Protecting intellectual property in cyberspace

In order to accommodate the increased Internet traffic of the past several years, the infrastructure of the Internet has grown, and has subsequently become more and more complex. The technological subtleties of expanding the Internet are not the only nor even the greatest problems associated with the growing cyberspace population. More troubling (to the Internet pioneers and purists) are the different visions these new Internet users have for the building of the global information infrastructure of the future. Businessmen, politicians, and entrepreneurs see in the Internet the potential for a rapidfire global marketplace; but in this digital world, content would have to be tightly controlled. This is a world far different from the highly unregulated infant Internet, in which the free flow of information was of fundamental importance. There is now a palpable tension between the users and the providers of information on the Internet. The providers require measures to protect their property, and users desire (at the very minimum), fair use of the content they download from the Internet. Aside from a few militant Internet aficionados, most people agree that regulatory devices should be implemented to protect intellectual property on the Internet to at least a limited extent. How then, can intellectual property owners assert some control over their property in the digital world without impinging upon users´ basic rights?