Information as a Commodity:

Control and Benefit Are Morally Owed to the Source

Richard A. Wright

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Reframing the Issues
• 3. The “High Cost to Industry” Defense
• 3.1 Raw Materials as a Cost of Doing Business
• 3.2 The Cost of Correcting Past Inequities as a Cost of Doing Business
• 3.3 Originator Control of Materials as a Feature of Doing Business
• 4. The “Private” is “Public” Defense
• 4.1 Private Information and “Voluntary” Release
• 4.2 Private Information in the “Public” Domain
• 4.3 Autonomy as the Basis for Understanding Privacy
• 5. Toward a Resolution
• 6. Concluding Thoughts

The “High Cost to Industry” Defense

The single most common defense raised by businesses against any proposed reform is that it will cost too much. In fact, the de rigueur argument, no matter what the proposal, seems to be as follows: “All increasers of the cost of doing business are unacceptable; All reforms of business practices proposed from outside are increasers of the cost of doing business; Therefore, All reforms of business practices proposed from outside are unacceptable.” It is thus not surprising that information industry representatives moan loudly about any possible reforms in their practices. This is especially so when those reforms suggest reimbursing information sources for utilizing information about themselves.

To fully understand what is at issue here, we need to compare the information industry to other industries on two counts: first, the industry’s need for “raw materials” in order to operate; and, second, the normal industry recognition that the supplier controls that which s/he supplies.

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