Nonrival
Description
Andrew Leonard:
"A "nonrival" good can be shared without losing anything. An apple, say, is a rival good: If one person eats it, the other person can't. A pirated download of the new "Star Trek" movie is nonrival -- it can be copied endlessly. Excludability refers to whether you can prevent someone from sharing, as with, for example, copy protection or a jail sentence." (http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/05/11/the_economics_of_star_trek/index.html)
Discussion
Andrew Leonard:
"Anything that can be digitally copied is nonrival and very difficult to exclude. So anyone whose job depends on the processing or delivery of information is feeling a great deal of stress right now about the difficulty of devising business models that thrive in a nonrival, nonexcludable operating environment. But in the long run, suggests Romer and as potentially demonstrated by "Star Trek," the benefit of expanding knowledge and technological change will be widely distributed prosperity: an end to scarcity, a future where the fundamental challenge of providing for our basic needs has been solved" (http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/05/11/the_economics_of_star_trek/index.html)