Question 7.35

7.35 Charging for data? Data produced by the government are often available free or at low cost to private users. For example, satellite weather data produced by the U.S. National Weather Service are available free to TV stations for their weather reports and to anyone on the Web. Opinion 1: Government data should be available to everyone at minimal cost. European governments, on the other hand, charge TV stations for weather data. Opinion 2: The satellites are expensive, and the TV stations are making a profit from their weather services, so they should share the cost. Which opinion do you support, and why?