Published 2013-03-13T06:30:00Z”/>
Paul Smeltzer
Barriers keeping us from knowledge are everywhere.
When scholastic articles cost about $30 to read, those who can’t afford the steep prices are left ignorant and uninformed.
Opening online information to the public’s disposal, rather than hoarding it like some chocolate-crazed fat kid, is an important step in strengthening education and democracy.
Books can also cost students as much as $1,000 per semester, and tuition is constantly rising while we’re forking out money for rent, food and other bills.
In return, thousands of students leave college with massive loans — which is why some avoid such expenditures by dropping out.
Access to learning is an opportunity everyone willing should have, even people who want to educate themselves outside a high-charging institution.
College bookstores are a good place to start lowering the costs of education. It makes no sense that my math book costs $300 at the Wildcat Store and $10 on Amazon, especially when our store claims to match lower prices from other locations.
Instead of robbing students, campus bookstores could buy textbooks directly from Amazon, Half.com or wherever else prices are 30 times lower. This way, they could avoid going out of business by steering students away from buying books somewhere else.
The idea of charging money for something like education, which will only benefit our future, is absurd, especially when you consider how much our justice system needs reasonable, enlightened thinkers.
The trial and ensuing suicide of online activist Aaron Swartz reveals the problems with how our justice system operates.
We’ve been given front-row seats to the side effects of “prosecutorial discretion,” which gives the Justice Department the power to decide whether to pursue a case.
More than a year and a half ago, Swartz was indicted after connecting his laptop to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s network and downloading millions of academic papers from the subscription service Journal Storage, according to a memo from the office of the attorney general.
Swartz planned to distribute the articles on Reddit, the social news website he co-founded, so others could freely access the content.
Journal Storage decided not to pursue charges, but the Justice Department pushed forward with prosecution on the grounds that cyber theft counts as stealing.
They slammed Swartz with 13 felonies, a maximum of “50 years imprisonment and $1 million in fines,” according to the attorney general’s memo.
By twisting the law to their advantage, prosecutors tore his life to pieces.
Our government wanted to make a point about following laws. By bullying Schwartz like tyrannical rulers, they put him on a pedestal for everyone to see and fear. It’s a chilling twist to what he stood for.
The Obama administration partially granted Swartz’s wish for free information Feb. 22 by ordering federal agencies to make federally funded research available to the public within six months of its publication.
The mandate came after a petition with more than 65,000 signatures asked for increased public access to studies paid for by taxpayers.
That’s a step in the right direction to solving many problems with free information in our nation.
While we fight to destroy the corruption on Wall Street and discover a cure for cancer, we can’t afford to compromise on the most important problem plaguing the world: the lack of free information.
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<strong>Paul Smeltzer can be reached at </strong><a href=”mailto:[email protected]”><em>[email protected]</em></a>
