The internet and the electronic economy are a technological revolution
whose secular importance is apparent. The internet eliminates the
temporal and spatial constraints on the exchange of information. It
changes deeply the world of production and of labour. It transforms the
exchange relationships between producers and consumers as well as
between the suppliers within the supply-chain. The electronic economy is
able to generate more accurate con- sumer profiles and, therefore, a
more powerful and effective marketing di- rected to the individual
consumer. There is no industry that is not undergoing thorough changes
caused by the internet. The volume at hand gives an analysis of the
internet revolution. It covers questions reaching form the highly
controversial thesis of the end of property rights in the internet
caused by the non-rivalry of the "consumption" of in- formation to
questions regarding the repercussions of the internet on our
understanding of the human person. Technological changes like the
introduction of the electronic economy pose the question of how to
handle it and how to manage reasonably its ethi- cal problems and
dilemmas. The ethical problems and the business ethics of the electronic
economy in the fields of production and labour, of consump- tion, and in
handling trust and the abuse of trust are analysed by the contribu-
tions from applied ethics and business ethics.
