Topic: Information that was formerly unavailable in digital form, or was prohibitively expensive, is now being made available thought the Internet by the US Federal and State Governments for free--provided you live in the right state. (Technically it's not really free. Taxes are paying for it.)

This information includes the full text (THE FULL TEXT) of scientific papers from peer-reviewed journals, industrial and business reports which typically cost several thousand dollars each, US Government reports (which have always been relatively reasonable in price but used to be available only on paper), and most surprising: magazine articles from thousands of ordinary magazines such as Popular Science and Time.

I've discovered that I have access to this stuff. I'll admit, I'm a bit excited about it, but frankly I'm also a little confused about how it can be offered without violating copyright. I'm convinced that they are NOT violating copyright. They sound as though the tax dollars are paying for the copyrights, but if so I don't understand how it could be enough. Maybe you'll understand this stuff better than I do.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the January 28, 2015 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 27 minutes] This monologue was recorded on January 26, 2015 using the free Voice Recorder app on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone.

Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last nine years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.