Access to information is the path
to life with quality, to health, to wealth, to bare necessities and ultimately
to power. Prince George's County libraries are on the forefront of the battle
to provide access to information to all people regardless of the size of their
bank accounts. Libraries today are in trouble, even national libraries such as
the National Agricultural Library here
in Prince George's County; and the Prince
George's County Memorial Library System is no different. Funding is flat or
declining and access to media is
shrinking. Some publishers have decided not to sell electronic books to
libraries further diminishing access to information. The greed of the few
outweighs the need of the many.[1]
The powerful few say that we do
not need books anymore, and then try to restrict on-line access through proposed
national laws that benefit the few today leaving the many to fend for themselves outside the information
highway tomorrow. So on top of not
having money to by library materials, and publishers unwilling to sell to
libraries even if there were funds we now have SOPA
and PIPA; "two bills in the United
States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA
is short for the "Stop Online Piracy Act," and PIPA is an acronym for
the "Protect IP Act." ("IP" stands for "intellectual
property.") In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright
infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in
a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet.
Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles
on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow
both bills through the legislative process: SOPA
on this page, and PIPA on this one. The EFF
has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free
Internet."[2]
Make no mistake, it is not in the
interest of wealth to provide free access to information. Business are set up
to make a profit not give away the store. Only large groups of people working
together can ameliorate the drive to exclusion by regulating through the
instrument of the people known as government. You cannot boycott information as
you might boycott tennis shoes. But the sword of government has to edges and
today we are seeing special profit interests try to restrict the flow and access
of information to the benefit of a few now at the exspense of the good of the many later.
[1] Christian
Davenport. As demand for e-books soars, libraries struggle to stock their
virtual shelves. January 14, 2012. [accessed January 18, 2012]
"...among librarians
trying to stock their virtual shelves and working with limited budgets and little
cooperation from some publishers; and among publishers who are fearful of
piracy and wading into a digital future that could further destabilize their
industry. In many cases, the publishers are limiting the number of e-books made
available to libraries."
[2] Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. [accessed January 18, 2012] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
No comments:
Post a Comment