This specifically is the case for scientific articles, that in the classical way go back and forth from the author to the editors until its scientific value has been approved by a number of experts and the article can be published. On the Web, however, any article can be published without any review, it is up to the reader to decide on the merit of it, which makes things very unclear and non-scientific. The background of the Internet concept is of course to provide data free of charge to anyone, to make information public domain. However, this does not prevent data from being stolen by someone to be published or sold for money. This success puts a heavy load on the network use, which slows down the information retrieval process considerably.
Information becomes the more and more volatile, fitting very well in our modern society.
This enlarges the difference between poor and rich countries of Europe, organizations who already have easy access to information now have an extra, even better tool at their disposal. On the other hand, investment in a PC, a modem and an Internet subscription is cheaper than subscription to journals, reference works and other printed material. At a certain point all documents will refer to reference lists, containing no real data. This referencing practice is of course frustrating to users such as scientists and policy makers, and is not the aim of the Internet, that is meant to speed up and ease up information retrieval.