ERIC Number: ED275303
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1986-Jun
Pages: 5
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Ten Information Commandments.
Kirby, Michael D.
Transnational Data and Communications Report, v9 n6 p19-22 Jun 1986
In response to fears that current institutions and laws may not adapt to rapid technological change with the necessary alacrity, a justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales presents and briefly discusses ten information commandmants, summarized as follows: (1) contemporary technological developments endanger human rights and civil liberties and require responses from society, including the legal system; (2) the common law system is insufficient to provide adequate responses to the challenges of technology--legislation is needed; (3) in some cases the technology itself demands or even produces legal reform; (4) the people are not always the best judges of their own interests--informed observers have a duty to identify dangers to freedom; (5) the costs of the right to information must be counted, but so must the intangible benefits; (6) information laws must be developed flexibly because of changing technology and the rapidly changing perceptions of the problems; (7) information rights must extend from the public sector to the private sector; (8) information technology presents international issues that require international solutions; (9) legal responses to information rights must attend to real problems and not content themselves with myths and mere symbols; and (10) democratic values must be preserved. (KM)
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Excerpts from the Keynote Address to the National Forum on Access to Information and Privacy (Ottawa, Canada, March 6, 1986).