Article on "The Value of the Public Domain"

[Christopher Browne]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061127-8292.html

The article gives weather data as the example of where open access (in
the US, weather data is available to 'all' free of charge; they don't
discuss restrictions) leads to greater economic value than restricted
access (in the UK, you have to pay to get access to weather data).

The cost to the government of collecting data may rise (the article
suggests a doubling of costs, but this may not be indicative of
anything meaningful, as the USA and EU are of different sizes), but
the wider spread public usage of the data leads to greater economic
value being attained from the data.

Seems like an interesting counter to some of the "proprietaryist"
arguments being thrown around surrounding things like DRM.
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