Legal and Ethical Issues

Creative commons is a non-profit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. This tool provides you the freedom to allow others to use, share or expand the work you have created without worrying about copyright infringement. This is an exceptional idea, as I believe that all information should be free to those who seek it. Knowledge itself should not be sold as a commodity. Why should one have to pay to read a specific journal article while others are free? Most researchers want their information to be read and discussed as this creates new ideas and interests within their respective fields. In the article "Open access research grows in popularity", these sentiments are expressed by researchers themselves. "The coin of the research world is readership". "Often times researchers do not want to make $1 million, but they want one million readers". Studies also suggest that open access research is read and subsequently cited more frequently, this leads to more exposure for the respective works. There are also cases in which researchers want their work to be published in open access but it does not happen that way. If the researchers themselves want their work to be available to the public, why is there still a price tag attached to it? We live in uncertain times. A time in which our education system  has succumb to criticisms on just about every level. Politicians remind us that we must find ways to educate our youth so we may continue to compete on a global market with our competitors. If this is indeed the case, why are we charging students and interested individuals for knowledge? In times where families struggle to make ends meet and put food on tables, who has the extra money to pay for nonessential goods? While the limitation of open access research is not the sole reason for our countries educational decline, it is defiantly problematic. The comodification of education and knowledge in our country severely hinders our growth as a nation. So let it be free!!!!

Security and Privacy

It seems we have come full circle, again entering into an era in which our fundamental rights are questionably tampered with. In todays modern world, we enjoys the fruits of technology never before seen. Yet these fruits are not as sweet as they first seem. The vast technological boom has left us as consumers in quite a pickle. We buy into these new waves of tech advancements because on the surface, they seem to make our lives more simple. Yet we are vastly loosing something so precious. What we are handing up for theses advancements is so precious that  it is often labeled as a fundamental right. Our right to privacy is not just on the brink of being attacked, no, the war has already been waged and we currently find ourselves on the loosing side of this battle. Yet this war seems to have taken place  hidden in plain view, unbeknownst to the average citizen. According to the article The Wild west of Privacy, big internet companies such as Goggle and Facebook collect information about us which they deploy to late advertisement companies. These advertisement companies then collect as much data as they can about us before selling it to other companies desperate to utilize this information as they see fit. From the statues of our health, sexual preference, habits to our finances, nothing is held sacred. We tend to blame the larger corporations for this breach of trust, not those collecting the details and selling them. We don't hold face book and google accountable for this breech of privacy, we instead embrace them almost daily through our constant use of theses services. Is the lack of push back from societal members due to generational differences? The article Survey reveals generation gap in attitudes about security and privacy, seems to point to this conclusion. A survey conducted by Fortinet concluded that a generational gap exists between member of the Gen-X and Millenials. The gap between the two generations points towards the difference of opinion regarding what information is important and what is not. One of the most glaring differences between the two is the Millenials "caviler attitude about work place policies and protecting work data". This caviler attitude leads to the leaking of information more often than not, the recent Target disaster being but one example of this. There needs to be some kind of system instilled that insures companies are upfront about their info snatching practices, even a system that would require them to receive permission from users after the user has been informed of what specific information is being sought out. Lastly, something needs to be done to ensure the lackadaisical attitude of the few no longer effects the masses.