Bloggers vs. radio hosts

Bloggers Take on Talk Radio Hosts
By NOAM COHEN
Published: January 15, 2007

'A San Francisco talk radio station pre-empted three hours of programming on Friday in response to a campaign by bloggers who have recorded extreme comments by several hosts and passed on digital copies to advertisers.'

'The comments were also posted on Spocko's Web site, spockosbrain.com. In response, ABC Radio Networks, which owns KSFO and which in turn is owned by the Walt Disney Company, sent letters to the site's service provider, demanding the clips be taken down from its servers. The provider complied, raising the issue of what constitutes fair use of copyrighted material by a critic'

Source: IFLA listserv

Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way

Site to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007

'Wikileaks.org is a Web-based way for people with damning, potentially helpful or just plain embarrassing government documents to make them public without leaving fingerprints. Modeled on the participatory, online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the site is expected to go live within the next two months.'


Source: IFLA listserv

Drug company information: Censorship or Commercial Confidentiality

Here's a link to an interesting article about a legal case involving a wee citizen-journalist trying to make important information regarding a controversial prescription drug (Zyprexa) available and the big money making drug company that makes the drug. The drug company was not impressed with the information leak - likely because they are facing enough problems relating to that drug (the company recently agreed to pay out oodles of money to settle claims relating to Zyprexa, it's best selling drug). You see, along with treating schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder, Zyprexa also has a few nasty side effects, like weight gain, high blood sugar, and diabetes.

You can't censor the truth - it will find its way out somehow.

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Welcome! Bienvenue!

Welcome to the Future Librarians for Intellectual Freedom blog. We are a group of Masters of Library and Information Studies students who are interested in intellectual freedom and social responsibility. Our hope is that by keeping you updated and by discussing the issues, we will be able to promote the importance of intellectual freedom and social responsibility both in you personal and professional lives.

We encourage open discussion from FLIF members, fellow students, and anyone else with an interest in intellectual freedom and social responsibility.

If you want more information about what this blog will be about, read the Canadian Library Associations position statement on intellectual freedom.

You can also read Wikipedia’s articles on intellectual freedom and social responsibility. We will add more resources as we can.

We’d like to emphasize that any and all ideas, whether they be in the form of a post or a comment, are not necessarily those held by all FLIF members, our fellow students, our faculty, or our school.

If you’d like to make a submission, please feel free to e-mail FLIF (flifblog at gmail dot com).