A dispute has broken out between the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and a group of leading internet companies - such as Google and Yahoo! - over payment for stock market data. The group, called Netcoalition.com, has evidently written a stinging letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to complain about prospective price rises for data access at the NYSE and the smaller exchange, Nasdaq.
Without going into the details, the row comes down to this. Netcoalition believes that the public should have access to real-time data for free. But the NYSE argues that the data is "a product" and, therefore, it must be paid for.
Now forgive me for making an obvious point, but don't American capitalists believe in something called the "free market"? And surely that market can't operate fairly unless its data is available to everyone as quickly as possible, and for free? Information is neither "a product" nor "a commodity". Well, it shouldn't be. I'm with Google on this.
