Information wants to be free

An interesting discussion here on efforts to make governmental document repositories — electronic ones, at least — financially self-supporting.
At first blush, this makes sense — money doesn’t just grow on trees, after all, and those who want access to the information should be the ones to bear the cost burden of providing it.
On the other hand, there is a long and important tradition in this country of an informed citizenry being the ideal. Should not the cost of disseminating this information, at least in some form, be borne by the nation as a whole, i.e., out of the General Fund (i.e., by taxes), rather than by user fees? We all benefit, in theory, by having governmental data available, so we all ought to pay.
I don’t see anything particularly sinister about these proposals, but I can see how they could be misused. And even if not misused, I think they are misguided.
(via BoingBoing)