Information technology and capitalist development

Abstract

As the potential for a vast number of new services and products in the wake of IT developments becomes apparent, private capital is moving in to secure its exclusive exploitation for private profits. The article traces the development of existing Information Technologies through the organisational imperatives of the military and multinational corporations. It shows how nearly everywhere capitalist pressure is leading to privatisation of public ownership and control over information systems and how national and international capital is restructuring to exploit IT. In the context of capitalist competition and production for profit the exploitation of IT will worsen class, gender and international inequalities (although in this article the latter two are only briefly touched on). But 81 Gareth Locksley argues that IT still carries the seeds of a more equal society; the left has to rethink and appropriate IT and fight for its development under social control.

Defending intellectual property: State efforts to protect creative works

“…19 Consumers, on the other hand, have lacked the resources needed to mount potent campaigns and secure their interests in acquiring greater access to creative works. Accordingly we would expect more law protecting the rights of owners than of consumers and, concomitantly, an appreciable amount of law incorporating new technologies into existing property structures (Locksley 1986).…”

Research on the Increase of Agriculture Economy of China with the Development of Information Technology

“…As for the relationship between informatization and agricultural economic development, many China's scholars from different perspectives have carried out relevant research, and drawn a series of conclusions:the construction of agricultural informatization is in favor of the adjustment of agricultural industrial structure, in favor of the farmers' rapid response to markets at home and abroad, in favor of the spread of new agricultural technology [1][2], in favor of, scientific decision-making of agricultural production management, there by Promoting farmer' income: informatization can overcome the weakness of agriculture [3], and the use of information technology can improve the contribution of the agricultural science and technology and achieve high value-added of agricultural products; information technology can play an active role in many aspects on agricultural production and management, such as strengthening the links between leading enterprises and farmers, accelerating the development of leading enterprises, expanding the cope of market transactions, reducing the production costs and risks for farmers, and promoting the development of agricultural industrialization;information technology has brought a big change to the operation for the agricultural market, that the country and even the world become a unified market, and agricultural producers(an take advantage of network technology to realize co-management with different industrial allies, work together to build a successful brand and constantly develop new markets [4]. There are also, scholars conducting empirical analysis of the effects of agricultural informatization on the rural economic growth, and the results show that there is a strong positive relationship between agricultural informatization and agricultural GDP [5], and agricultural informatization aims ultimately to achieve rural economic growth mainly by reducing labor input, promoting rural urbanization, industrialization, and increase farmers' average level of education [6].…”