I have a few things to discuss about it and i would like to know your opinions...I study in oxford,in oxford brookes university, and we are suppose to be the "small" university with the modern studies and the generally "crap" level.For this reason the brookes students are not allowed to have access to the oxford university libraries IN NO POSSIBLE WAY!!!!That really has made me angry,not beause i would like to have access to the books that are related to the subject i study (my uni has more and better books on this subject.... :baeh: ) but i would like to read some of the history and archaelogy books they have,which are in fact unique!!!!And you can imagine there are manuscripts in there with unlimited sources of info originated from even ancient years...And of course no one else has the ability to access these libraries at all!!This is only a very small personal example i can give you and i am sure you can think many more!!!!!Please tell me your opinion because i beleive freedom of information and knowlege is evenly important to freedom of speech!!!

There are many ways to answer this question... One of them is like this: If information is power, and establishments want to limit power to only those they support/approuve, then it makes sence that only people pre-selected get to have access to certain info. Because then only certain people will have power. Of course there should be full access to info by anyone. But agruments come up as: should bomb making info be available? Should child sex info be available?
But the problem is that as soom as you limit one kind of info, it becomes so easy to limit another kind of info, and progressivly, there are more and more subject deemed as "not in the good of society" to have available. And there is where oppression bigins...

Other than what thermopyles said you'll have to consider that everyone tried to make profit from everything..Let alone information...The rule is simple,pay and get what you want.On the other hand if you search the net you might be able to access the info you need.

D.E.A. first of all in this case,as in many others,even if i pay i won't be able to have access and secondly there are many thing that you can't have access through the internet and to be more specific i am talking about a lot of manuscripts that exist in libraries like the one in oxford that you cannot find....and if you can there is a very high possibility to be translated the wrong way by mistake or even worse,on purpose!!!!!

When you decided to study in england was it that you could not afford to study in the oxford university or that or that you were not accepted?

Now as far as he manuscripts concerned quite a few things have made their way to the net why not one of them.

A bit of both....in fact i never applied for oxford university....why is that question if you don't mind???I am also not talking about oxford university itself, but also for any other type of classified information.....I know there should be many stuff not to be known by many people but still....

Knowledge is power.

Knowledge comes with a specific price.

And for some, access to knowledge should be contained in order to keep it's power..

The only free information trafficking tool is Internet and that's because Internet is so big that it cannot be contained.

What i wrote above refer to my question.

If you are satisfied with this situation i am fine with that......I am not, and in fact i always fight for a free knowledge for the people by the time these people would like to know about something.....and most of the people are affraid to demand their own rights to knowledge.....as Greeks used to fight for freedom,now freedom is defined by knowledge and if we don't fight for it,soon we will be only pawns without knowing nothing and accepting this situation without even trying to change it....

Mourle, I doubt you will find many people happy with many current situations. And it is not only with freedom of information. It is really about freedom of choice, solong as others rights are respected. However, keep in mind the following: The powers have had tremendous success keeping people so busy and distracted just to pay the rent and buy food, that all hope is remouved and all motivation to fight had been put out. This has been replaced by the dayly struggle just to exsist, TV, video games, and the "figoura" (material modes) of the times.

If we really want change we must pay with the sacrifice of our ancestors. Blood, soul, and disregard for personal future and consiquenses. And that will only happen with one or more of the following ways: Have nothing left to loose combined with massive social mouvement, a direct democracy with manditory referrendums, a military coup, or flat out revolution. For better or worse, we are not close to any of those options...

I couldn't agree more with you..... :friendship: :bow:

There are many who prohibit the access to information...This whole thing started with the birth of christianity...First the burning of the Alexandrian library then the chase and extermination of everything opposing it and finally the dark ages...Then we managed to reverse this whole thing but in the late40-50 years we are heading towards another dark age...Another thing that should bother us all is, that spying-mole society that we're heading towards to...Everyone is spying on the other...Our phones,mail,emails,all our means of comunication are beeing monitored...There is only one way to reverse this whole thing...Revolution,blood and carnage..It is the only way for humans to improve our selves i think...But what bothers me then is that,what happens if a stupid religion will take us over?? and we'll have a think like that in V for vendetta and so many post apocalyptic books etc describe...

In the US even the freedom to information pact of the UN doesn't work...

Alot of high level government, research and academic libraries have restricted access. I think you need university affiliation stating that you a historian, philologist, archaelogist or some other kind of other researcher to access such collections. That way important archives can be better protected, preserved and action can be taken when damage is done.

Lets suppose that, indeed these are original manuscripts with no hard copies -because the work is fresh of the reseacher is waiting to complete and publish. In this case I agree, the info should only be accessable by the people the reasecher or owner of the research should have access. Is this the type of info you are speaking of, or do you mean aboult newly/already publishe info?

I think knowledge should in no possible ways be restricted..Everyone should learn what ever he prefers.

I believe Knowledge should be open to all,not just restricted to students.

And the internet is not good enough because there is too much crap in it.