It used to be said that the most valuable thing was information. Then, in an intro to the Len Deighton spy thriller The Ipcress File, it was said that no, the most valuable thing was 'people with information'.

News breaks that somebody has broken the Harry Potter embargo by photographing every page of the new book with a digital camera - but according to The Times, the person who did so could be identified because the camera's serial number is embedded in all the images that were posted on the internet. The virtually non-erasable 'meta data' could be the culprit's undoing as it's thought that they used a Canon Rebel 350, serial number 560151117. Sales or service records may identify the spoiler (and copyright violator).

So now you know: the most valuable thing isn't information, or people with information, it's 'information about information'.