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It’s a new world in publishing. No paper, no distribution networks, no trucks and no stamps. Instead, the idea is to diffuse information and ideas to as many as possible with the lowest cost and the least delay.
You can bet that a lot of people vested in the old system are upset. Say publishing moguls, local dictators and assorted censors.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas had it right when he said said “the right of freedom of speech and press includes not only the right to utter or to print, but the right to distribute, the right to receive, the right to read, and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom to teach.”
St. George Tucker, a professor or law at William & Mary and the author of the Americanized version of Blackstone’s Commentaries, our basic legal dictionary for more than 200 years, said in the 1700s that “liberty of speech and of discussion in all speculative matters, consists in the absolute and uncontrollable right of speaking, writing, and publishing, our opinions concerning any subject, whether religious, philosophical, or political….”
And now we’ve got it. We have the Internet, blogs and eBooks. So go forth and think, write, distribute and absorb. Find the ideas that make the most sense for you, that provide the most help, the most hope, the most enjoyment and the most value.
That’s what we’re about.
