12. The Information and Communication Technology and the Tourism Sector

The contrast between copyleft and copyright pivots around a pun on the double meaning of left and right, where politically the word “right” is associated to a more individualistic and free-oriented economic ideology and the word “left” is instead associated with a more heterodox and communitarian vision of the economic relationships. On these topics, a very interesting literature is flourishing and many scholars affirm that, contrarily to what Varian affirms, these forms of economic experimentation can bring a revolution into the fundamental paradigm of the economic action (Figini 2008).

The easy and cost-effective management of databases is certainly one of the most impressive, but also more controversial fields of development of the Internet revolution. In fact, parallel to the constitution of databases on goods and services, which allow an easy comparison of price and quality, there is an increasing demand, by part of firms, for information on consumers’ characteristics and tastes. Many entrepreneurial activities are recently born to search, collect, analyze, and sell information relative to the behavior and the preferences of consumers, individually or clustered. Moreover, many popular services and social networks impose their members to accept to provide their personal data to third parties. Such information is sometimes transferred in a hidden and automatic way, through the tracking of Internet browsing (for example, through cookies or spyware) or recalling the previous purchases of registered customers. On one hand, such tracking can be useful for both firms and customers, if the aim is to meet the customer preferences through a more customized service. On the other hand, the improper use of these databases can have serious implications in terms of personal privacy, limitation of individual rights, and might constitute a menace to personal freedom and a non-democratic mechanism of political control.

For example, it is straightforward that the utility stemming from purchasing a phone depends on the number of people who can be called: the more the phone is used, the lower the price and the higher the convenience of accessing the phone network.

In the US, the effect of such situation has been unfolded when some airlines (KLM, Delta Airlines, North-West Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines) cut the commission rates to travel agencies from 8 to 5 % at the beginning of 1999, being the direct sale through the Internet more convenient particularly for business travelers. Such decision had a strong impact on the retailing sector, since more than 1,800 travel agencies closed down by the end of 1999.