Digital Pulse - Ch 2 - Sec 2 - Information Monopolies and the WTO

Summary

Verzola's article examines the nature of the modern international economy and the emerging role of the information sector in this system and its implications for global society. It is also an attack on attempts by capitalist interests to monopolize ownership of and access to information and the technologies used to produce it via supranational organizations such as the WTO. Verzola, suggests that there are opportunities and strategies to resist this monopolization of the social wealth of information.

Key Points

One of the first tenants of his position is that the information sector is decidedly different from the agricultural and industrial sectors of the economy. Per unit production costs remain high in both agriculture and manufacturing whereas the majority of costs in the info sector are contained within the initial research and development (R & D) stage, subsequent reproduction of the materials is cheap and lends itself to huge profit margins. It is, however, difficult for the capitalists to control the wanton reproduction of much of this information. Intellectual property rights (IRP's) are an attempt to maintain this control. It is these attempts to control access that make the capitalists involved in the information economy a propertied, rent seeking class that Verzola terms “cyberlords.” Information cyberlords control the programs, data, and content (software), and extract rents via patent and copyright loyalties and licensing fees. Industrial cyberlords control the infrastructure, servers, and hardware needed for using and distributing this information.

Because the potential for information transfer and exchange is global, the cyberlords have had to develop an international legal superstructure to ensure the extraction of their rents throughout the world. They are a driving force behind globalization and their primary instrument has become the WTO. The most important agreement – that the cyberlords could not do without – is the TRIPS agreements and its protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs). What this system manages to do is to preserve the colonial trade patterns of the past wherein the greatest returns will continue to be enjoyed by those immersed in the information economy – e.g. the Western world. Verzola argues that the emergence of the global information economy can be seen as the third wave of an ongoing, continual process of globalization that began with early colonialism, continued with post-colonial industrial expansion and has now arrived in its present incarnation.

While supporters of the information revolution often laud the potential for these new ICTs to improve the situation for poor countries, Verzola argues that it is more likely they will be left out because of the high initial costs of R & D and the establishment of an infrastructure. These high costs are a barrier for poor countries. They will also not be able to catch up because the rich are getting richer much faster than ever before because of the “low-friction capitalism” (i.e. low transaction and transit costs) enabled by information economies.

Verzola's strategy to fight the cyberlords is to oppose privatization and to fight for public domain information content, tools, facilities and infrastructure. The expansion of IRPs needs to be resisted and the public should not allow its culture, knowledge and other non-material goods to become the exclusive property of any individual or corporation. Community control over the infrastructure of information facilities must be advocated to maintain public spaces and access. These policies are clearly in contrast with the demands of the WTO and this can be expected to remain the primary arena in which control and information monopolies are fought. The low cost of reproduction of information, is both the strength and the weakness of the cyberlords, and society must continue to capitalize on this feature and continue to share information as freely as possible to limit their control.

Source: Robert Verzola "Information Monopolies and the WTO" on the National Information Technology Forum (NITF) site.