Introduction: Digitization and the Law – a European Perspective

"Digitization of information" means, to state it in the simplest way possi‐ ble, the representation of information as a sequence of zeros and ones. Digitized information can be edited, stored and easily transferred between computers. In view of the high power of today's computers and their glob‐ al networking via the Internet, this means that vast amounts of information can be processed, stored and transmitted in real time. A second characteristic need also be considered: Digitized information is enormously plastic. Texts, pictures, video and audio files can be con‐ verted into digitized form. Until recently, these kinds of information could only be perceived by means of monitors, loudspeakers, or, respectively, headphones. At the present time, a new breakthrough is emerging under the keyword "virtuality”, meaning a significantly more intensive form of experience which is digitally-based. The creation of virtual environments is making extremely rapid progress so that it will soon be possible to “dive into” deceptively real artificially created environments using data goggles. The "digital revolution" is happening at the same time as other techno‐ logical developments. One worth mentioning are the enormous advances in microphone technology, which make it possible for us to record much more data, and then also at much higher levels of quality, than was ever previously possible. In this context, one has referred to the new granulari‐ ty, or fineness, of data. Perhaps even more far-reaching are new forms of autonomous systems, i.e. technological systems, which react independently of human input to new factual situations and can thus successfully deal with unforeseen problems autonomously. Such systems are to a certain extent already re‐ garded as independent actors. It can be assumed that their importance will increase significantly in the near future. This development is particularly I.