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
Originator Control of Materials as a Feature of Doing Business
In all other industries, the original source of materials is also recognized
as the controller of those materials, as so clearly evidenced by the cost and
availability of crude oil, and its effect on every imaginable segment of industrialized
society.
Granted, in the capitalist system, the market drives the demand, which in turn
drives the cost. Yet that can all be heavily manipulated by the originating
source, thus demonstrating control as a recognized entity in the process.
Once again, however, the information industry has made an exception of itself,
most likely for two reasons: first, as noted above, it is easy to obtain information
without the original source being aware; but, second, and more important, it
is most likely that if the industry had to obtain consent they would have significantly
less information to utilize, since there would be a considerable level of refusal.
After all, how many people would consent to have their name included on a pyramid
listing for junk mail? Yet to exclude such consent would be similar to not obtaining
informed consent for participation in medical research, on the grounds that
doctors could get more research done if the subjects did not know they were
being used for research purposes, because then patients could not opt out.
To require that the information industry recognize the control of the original
source of information would crimp their current style of operations. But in
all other industries this must simply be accepted as one cost of doing business;
why should the information industry be exempt? The strongest argument at this
time seems to be that the information is in fact “public”, thus available
for anyone to use as s/he sees fit. That argument must now be examined.
Go to: 4. The “Private” is “Public” Defense
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