Technology standards and privacy issues, for example, are too important to be entrusted to the marketplace alone. Competing software firms have little interest in preserving the open standards that are essential to a fully functioning interactive network. Markets encourage innovation, but they do not necessarily insure the public interest. This goal might appear absolutely vital in a few years, when will appear the importance to equip the schools of the world with basic computer facilities. The software side might wery well belong to the world public domain.
Privacy issues are also of strategic importance.
It is essentially a philosophical and political issue. US and EU differ somewhat on the isues of transborder's dataflow.