nologies have accounted for a large share of investment and made a significant contribution to economic growth, supported by an intellectual property system that has provided effective protection for digital technologies in the new economy. Businesses, individuals and governments have all profited from the benefits delivered by the ever-increasing and broadening use of the Internet. The explosion of the Internet, and the increase in .com enterprises, has profoundly shaken the economic world and has generated new commercial models; they have also affected the legal world by posing new problems, inter alias, in relation to the protection of intellectual property on the Internet. Following a period of sudden growth, in 2001, the businesses of the new economy nevertheless experienced a significant crash, of such a magnitude that questions were raised as to how the Internet would develop in the future.
             The character of the intellectual property system is evolutionary and while the nature of the rights themselves, to control and exploit the products of one¡s creativity and innovation, remains relatively constant, the manner by which they are expressed and exchanged is constantly adapting to developments in the underlying technologies. The invention of, in turn, the printing press, phonograms, radio and television broadcasting, cable and satellite transmission, videocassette recorders, compact disc (CD) and digital versatile disc (DVD) technology and, now, the Internet, has affected both the form and the substance of intellectual property rights. Ever adaptable, intellectual property has now migrated to the Internet and is being modified to suit the online environment in ways that are described in the following chapters. Intellectual property has gained importance in this digital environment as, increasingly, business assets are reflected in intellectual as opposed to physical property. The value of many online companies, for example...