That's a very big subject.
First there are the copyright and reproduction rights of big companies. These are relatively well supported legally, either through internal legal means or by hiring specialized companies.
There's no doubt the "dematerialization" of information, brought about by the Internet and digitization, makes it easier to undermine intellectual property in various ways.
The danger is real for small producers/distributors of "original" content, who don't have the means to monitor the theft of their products, or to take legal action to ensure their rights are respected.
But all this is the "official" part — cases of plagiarism that can be found in "rematerialized" works. There is perhaps a more insidious form of plagiarism, which is the theft of ideas, concepts, formulas, etc., with no mention of their origin. It's hard to "prove" such plagiarism because it is not just a matter of "copy and paste". But it's another aspect of the issue which is often obscured in the debate.
What's the solution? We need a system where you can register free of charge an article, book or piece of music with an international organization that can take legal action against plagiarism. This wouldn't solve all the problems, but would at least establish a basic structure and, who knows, might deter the thieves.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web? What practical suggestions do you have?
We passed the milestone this summer. Now more than half the users of the Internet live outside the United States. Next year more than half of all users will be non English-speaking, compared with only 5% five years ago. Isn't that great?
At the same time, the Internet has became multi-faceted and now requires more and more efficient tools because of the "enrichment" of content (or rather of what contains it, because as far as the real content is concerned, there's no enrichment, except of the firms that sell it). The Internet needs strong systems, with good memory and powerful microprocessors. Development of the non English-speaking Web will be mainly aimed at people who have no way of getting powerful systems or the latest software and operating systems, or of upgrading or renewing it all every year. Also, communication infrastructure is sorely lacking in many places outside Europe and the United States. So there is a problem of bandwidth.
I've been noticing this phenomenon since the very beginning of Chroniques. Some readers (in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, South America and the Pacific) tell me they like being able to suscribe to an e-mail version. They can get Chroniques as a single message, read it off-line and choose the sites they want to consult later. Often they have to plan their time online carefully because of poor communication links.