This paper reviews 10 years of debate in Europe on commercial rights of access to government information, starting with the United Kingdom's innovative Government Tradable Information Guidelines of 1996 and ending with the European Commission's Draft Green Paper on Rights of Access in 1996. United States market development and commercial rights of access are compared to the European situation, and the needs of the European information industry in this regard are reviewed in detail. The paper looks at access to legal and business information as critical case studies, citing access to the United Kingdom VAT Register as a recent case study. The decline in government copyrights and the increase in public domain data released onto the Internet is contrasted with the growing tendency to create new information monopolies through privatization and deregulation. The 19 key principles developed by the European Information Industry Association (EIIA) for adoption as industry guidelines are appended. (Author/SWC)