If many people don't see the value of scholarly research, it's probably in part because copyright prevents them from easily partaking of its fruits. Scholarly research, with few exceptions, is funded by tax dollars directly and indirectly, in the forms of scholars' salaries at public universities, tax exemptions for private universities, government grants, grants from tax-exempt private charities, and so on. However, results of scholarly research, with few exceptions, are largely unavailable to the public. Contents of all scholarly publications -- books and journal articles -- should be digitized and made accessible to all. All cities, towns, and villages should follow Dayton's example (cf, <http://www.ci.dayton.oh.us/news/news_data/wifidowntowncomplete.asp>) and make free wireless broadband available. Then, more people will have a chance to make use of scholarly research. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Monthly Review: <http://monthlyreview.org/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>