The value which can be assigned to information, both directly and indirectly, has done more than simply turn it into a commodity to be traded in the market-place. There is some information which can never be the simple neutral object of a commercial transaction. Possessing it can bring too many benefits, and not possessing it too many disadvantages, for that to be possible. The creators of information are creating a piece of valuable property; sometimes it may be so valuable to the creator and possessor that it cannot be made generally available at all. These considerations underlie a complex and sometimes shadowy set of relationships between information itself, its creators, owners and providers, individual consumers or beneficiaries of information, and the apparatus of a state which seeks to regulate these interactions.

The role of the state: an introduction

In essence, the state can intervene in four ways between the information owner and the information-seeker. First, it can protect information as a piece of property in which the rights of ownership clearly belong to its legal possessor. This is the function of the law of copyright, and a number of associated forms of protection known to lawyers as ‘adjacent rights’ or, more generally, ‘intellectual property’. Secondly, the state can prevent the unauthorized use of information that has been legitimately collected. This is the purpose of the growing body of law concerned with the protection of data, especially data on the personal and financial affairs of individuals. Thirdly, the state can guarantee the right of access to certain categories of information of concern, interest or benefit to its citizens. Freedom of information legislation works in several ways, but is normally concerned primarily with facilitating general access to information of general importance, while ensuring that individuals are aware of, and have some control over, data that concern them at a personal level including data collected and held by the state itself. Finally, the state can prevent the dissemination of information. This can be for reasons of security, morality or political expediency, and can be overt or covert; it is, necessarily, the most difficult area to explore.