I wanted to highlight another solid data point in the clear pattern of the online giants expecting to use other people's property for free. Tuesday the Washington Post ran an article "Internet Firms Seek Rollback of Quote Fees" which explained that Google, Yahoo, and IAC (ask.com) plan to petition the SEC to forbid stock exchanges from charging them fees for real-time stock price quotes. The Executive Director of this Net Coalition -- of Takers said bluntly, "we dont think they own the information." Obviously the SEC disagreed and believes the exchanges do "own the real-time price quotes" information. However, "takers" don't take "no" for an answer.
It's instructive to point out that this Net Coalition -- of Takers, are some of the same folks that:
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The book publishers and authors are suing for digitzing their book without permission;
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The newspapers are suing for using their headlines and photos without permission;
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Trademark owners are suing for using their trademarks without permission.
This Net Coalition -- of Takers appears to have a very self-serving definition of "ownership." It appears that they think "information generated by others is not "owned" by others because its digitizable, and if its digitizable its fair game for them to search or provide and make money from. Apparently in the digital values and ethics of these online giants, it is "wrong" for others to make money off of the valuable information that their businesses generate, but "right" for the online giants to make money off selling access to information that others produce.
We all know "takers." They are people or organizations that are only out for themselves, who don't even have the self awareness that others could have a different view. The evidence is becoming pretty overwhelming that Google, Yahoo and IAC, believe the world owes them everyone's information, but they don't owe anyone anything. They appear to be some of the biggest "takers" around.
