Information World Review, which has joined the Free Our Data campaign, has pointed to a study comparing the economic benefits of industries which use copyright-controlled data, and those which use non-controlled data.

The copyright-controlled side generates less economic benefit under the study (though we have to admit having seen a critique by Nick Carr, a columnist for Guardian Technology, pointing out that the study is amazingly wide-ranging – and includes entire industries which may lie on both sides of the “copyright/unrestricted” fence.

It is difficult to do economic analyses of such things. For instance Google runs on the free Linux operating system. But you won’t find it giving out copies to Microsoft (even if Microsoft wanted it). Is that copyrighting, or unpaid use? The argument surely is that Linux *enables* Google to build a huge business which relies, internally, on all sorts of copyrighted, and closely-guarded details. In the same way, making government data free for the benefit of all citizens would give us the foundations for new businesses which could do remarkable things. GPS remains the classic example.

The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
• Information World Review joins Free Our Data campaign (28 August 2007; score: 33.09%)
• In the Guardian: Ordnance Survey's future awaits budget; Peoples' Map launches (2 April 2009; score: 31.85%)
• More detail from the OFT report: where next for public data? (14 December 2006; score: 27.25%)
• How long does it take a government to do an economics study? (4 May 2006; score: 26.89%)
• OFT says more competition for public sector information would generate £1 billion extra annually (7 December 2006; score: 25.89%)