It allows its users access to the Internet as well as to information stored in the appellant's own system by community organizations. There could hardly be a clearer invitation to this Court to provide such a precedent. As I understand the law stated in the authorities previously cited, this Court, in deciding whether the appellant falls within the fourth category of charities, is required to determine whether its purposes fall within the spirit and intendment of the Statute of Elizabeth. That, in its turn, requires us to look at the appellant to see if it has the same type of purpose as those listed in the preamble to the statute. The detail of how those types of purposes will work themselves out in the real world will, of course, change as society changes but the types themselves will not.
Information is the currency of modern life.
This has been properly called the information age. The free exchange of information amongst members of society has long been recognized as a public good. It is indeed essential to the maintenance of democracy, and modern experience demonstrates more and more frequently that it, more than any force of arms, has the power to destroy authoritarianism. The recognition of freedom of speech as a core value in society is but one aspect of the importance of freedom of information. The preamble to the Statute of Elizabeth speaks of the repair of bridges, ports, causeways and highways.