Access to content (A2C) in the digital environment

The effects of the digital networked environment cannot be contained in a single neatly organised package but are dispersed and affect, to a different degree, the existing regulatory regimes for telecommunications, audiovisual media services, copyright, cultural policy and human rights protection measures. The intrinsic ‘globalness’ of the digital ecology has not eradicated the possibilities for ‘local’ interventions in all these domains – the effects of the local measures are however often globally spread (e.g. internet filtering). This makes the regulatory environment outstandingly complex and fragmented (both in terms of layers and of domains) and renders regulatory design accordingly intricate. Under these circumstances, the A2C question needs to be addressed with cautious consideration of all these layers and realms.

It is the purpose of this project to do so, paying particular attention to international trade regulation, and to come up with some tangible policy proposals of how better to foster A2C in the digital media environment. Our analysis is two-pronged: it seeks to examine (i) the existing rules that create barriers to access to content (and how they can be dismantled) and (ii) the existing flexibilities in the rules’ structure that may allow intervention fostering access to content.

Accounting for the growing importance of A2C, it is essential that the appropriate mixture of technical, economic and societal regulation is identified to fill the ‘governance gaps’ between the economically-motivated activities of key stakeholders and the external consequences for other market players, users and the public at large. Depending on the concrete conditions and considering the affordances of the digital mode of content production, distribution and access, this may mean extending or shrinking regulation in various areas. It is also to be tested which regulatory issues are best dealt with at the national level, at the bilateral/regional level or are most suitably addressed by the WTO.