What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book - a key part of our planet's cultural legacy.
Aaron SwartzRead
We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of open access to scientific knowledge and resources.
Aaron Swartz's quote advocates for the free sharing of academic research and scientific journals, highlighting the ethical concerns around the accessibility of knowledge. By promoting the idea of downloading and uploading these resources to file-sharing networks, Swartz calls for a culture where information is readily available to all, rather than being restricted by paywalls and subscription fees.
Themes
AccessScienceKnowledgeSharingFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on open access, one might say: 'As Aaron Swartz once stated, we need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks.'
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But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
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Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves.
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