Aaron Swartz and the Assault on Open Information
Malicious Government Prosecution
Geovanis, Chris
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/15/aaron-swartz-and-the-assault-on-open-information/
Date Written: 2013-01-15
Publisher: CounterPunch
Year Published: 2013
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX14808
The great corporate-supported push to hide essential, publicly funded information behind private firewalls and government secrecy, represents a breathtaking breach of the basic tenets of democracy.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
Advocates of open access argue that information should be free, especially when public dollars and public consent, however torturously that consent is extracted, lie at the root of the creation of that information. Yet we live in an age of mounting government secrecy and a relentless push to privatization: of not just our public schools, our public health clinics and a host of other taxpayer-funded civic goods, but of our court proceedings, publicly funded research, and the contortions and conversations that go into creating government policy that our tax dollars bankroll but of which we are denied knowledge. That reality, that great corporate-supported push to hide essential, publicly funded information behind private firewalls and government secrecy, represents a breathtaking breach of the basic tenets of democracy. It is this breach above all else that information freedom activist Aaron Swartz sought to subvert.
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