Re: Some interesting economic facts

["Katharine M.J. Osborne" <kosborne@rocketmail.com>]

Let me first clarify that I think that these cases would
be rather rare.

Take for instance a company that accumulates demographic
information. Later, they use a specific set of this
information to develop a product that is tailored to a
certain demographic in a very competitive market. Yes,
other companies are probably collecting similar
information for the same purposes and the original source
of the information is of course free, but it costs real
money to collect this information especially since it
expires so quickly. These companies will want to protect
their investment by keeping competitors away from their
information. Often, the first competitor to market with a
viable product will when that market.

Now, let's say that these two companies are NBC and CBS.
They have idependently collect information on
18-24-year-old males, the prized TV viewing demographic.
Both companies want to develop products that appeal to
this group, and capture a market that recycles itself
twice a year. Will forcing these companies to release
their information to the public domain lead to more
creative TV shows? What is most likely to happen is that
the two networks no longer have a means to remain
competitive, and we end up with even more banal TV shows.

My whole point is that the world is way to complicated to
make sweeping assumptions and assertations to say that
'all' information has to be free that does not directly
result from a creative process likely to spawn further
creative processes.

---Matt Deatrick <mattd@shocking.com> wrote:
>
> > 
> > Perhaps a better definition of the problem is defining
> > whether that raw information will lead to a creative
> > process (perhaps at the most basic level that creative
> > process is the financial growth of a business), and that
> > that creative process is best served if it exclusively
> > carried out within the confines of the owner.
> 
> 	Is it? How so? I am unsure of what you mean. 
> 	Matt
> 
-snip-
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