We're surrounded by free factual information, but there's a bill in Congress that would lock it all up. The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (DCIMA, H.R. 3261) extends extremely broad copyright-like protections to collections of factual data - data like the price of a TV, the temperature in Arizona or information collected during scientific research.

But so far, IP owners are doing all they can to lock in their old entitlements, pushing for increasingly restrictive laws and enforcement. The result: laughably broad patents (Monsanto claims to have rights to any and all genetic modifications to soybeans, for instance); the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (for five years used as a club to ward off technological innovations in software and media); and lately, patents awarded for software (even though it is already protected by copyright law). The MPAA and RIAA are even seeking permanent antitrust exemptions from Congress to more effectively defend against technology's inevitable progress. The shipping industry tried that one, too.