Public access to information : reaching the right balance between public and private

This thesis examines the change towards a property-based view of information in the fields of copyright, database protection and data privacy. Focus will be placed on the United States and the European Union, as those territories together are responsible for more than half of the world's Internet population. The thesis will attempt to show that a view of information as personal property is not actually benefiting society in general and is dangerous for future progress: economic, scientific and social. The thesis suggests balancing the restrictions on access to information as a whole, meaning viewing the restrictions in copyright, database protection and privacy laws to see how they together affect access to information. It argues that these fields of law should supplement each other in maximizing social welfare through a baseline of public access as opposed to a baseline of monopoly