It’s clear from what’s taking place in the Gulf of Mexico that we need to find a way to operate as a civilization without threatening the health of the oceans, but how can we best change policy on the use of agricultural chemicals, the dumping of industrial waste, the management of landfills, and the harvesting [...]

MSNBC reported this evening that a group of Alabama fire chiefs are alleging BP is deliberately preventing trained responders from accessing spill sites, including beaches where oil is coming ashore and wildlife are in immediate danger. Do we need new legislation to give government the power to intervene to prevent a transnational corporation like BP [...]

Severe curbs on reporters’ freedom to report not only expose those reporters to retribution for nothing more than doing their job and assisting in the public flow of reliable information, they threaten the freedom of individuals to know about their world and make informed decisions about who should govern their communities and their future.

I would rephrase Denver’s account, and say it like this: “Such extreme limitations on press freedom democracy in Italy”. There is no reason for such laws except to help public officials cover up criminal ties and bad behavior, or to justify the courts’ inability to behave responsibly in an environment of open information flows.

The key question for me here involves the idea of “generative” spending, as you would say it, Joseph. Is Spain disallowing its own most valuable spending, in the interests of giving an impression of devout austerity? And do certain kinds of cuts undermine “confidence” far more than deficits do? There are lessons from the US, [...]

I’m just updating this discussion with my comments from the previous site. But, I’m also curious to know if anyone’s thinking about whether the open development platform for Apple’s devices is a new kind of openness, matching open source principles with the power of a corporate innovation engine, or whether the uniform distribution system for [...]

Are there ways to use temporary no-charge digital distribution, where files can be copied, perhaps only in part, but where all files in the no-charge chain are promotional, and will expire if not paid for by a certain date?

As a writer and reporter myself, I feel it’s important to balance the free flow of information with the right of those who produce content to make an honest living. I have not seen a standard for DRM that is ideal for me, for my tastes, but I think we need to find ways to [...]

The bases for sustainable economic and educational prosperity are: 1) informational freedom; 2) the ability to think critically; 3) an understanding of the distinction between truth and presented fact; 4) an ethical approach to knowing about others and otherness. Reason, the self-starting process of asking what we know and how we know it, must be [...]

It’s clear that we need to do something to tackle the technical problems that make filtering an attractive business proposition for the ISPs, but we cannot tie the principle of net neutrality to technical capability. We should start moving forward with strong legislation to mandate that any information network carrier provide unfiltered…[Read more]