Information Wants To Be Free

According to Wikipedia, this phrase was supposedly first pronounced by Stewart Brand in 1984, citing the fact that the cost of dissemination is getting lower and lower. However, the effort required to generate high-quality information ain't getting any cheaper.

But equally a lot of people view their information as free for dissemination as they make their money in other ways, like IKEA. You could say the likes of Google are parasitic and without information to search they wouldn't be able to sell advertising space, but I would argue it more of a symbiotic relationship. The concept of consolidating freely available information then selling easy access i.e. adding value is as old as the Bible.

With the trend towards Open Source the argument goes that enabling technology like operating systems and other basic building blocks that benefit everyone should be free so that, like Isaac Newton, you can reach greatness by 'standing on the shoulders of giants' rather than reinventing the wheel. I think there is a strong argument that if public money is spent on R&D then the IP should be made freely available. However, those who create valuable information (and whose business model requires payment) deserve to have their copyright and commercial integrity respected.