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The purpose of this paper is to consider arguments both for and against intellectual property (IP) rights that are premised on each of two conceptions of the information commons that attributes either moral value or disvalue to its preservation.

The methodology is the philosophically standard one of reflective equilibrium. The author considers the argument for a morally protected information commons that is grounded in Locke's famous proviso limiting original acquisition of material property to situations that leave enough of the resource to others and Hardin's famous argument that holding material property in common leads to overuse and depletion – a Tragedy of the commons. In particular, the arguments are evaluated according to whether they cohere with ordinary foundational commitments.

The author argues that neither conception of the commons is directly applicable to information objects and hence is relevant with respect to the issue of whether legal protection of IP rights is morally justified.

The identification of key differences between material objects and information objects that shows the irrelevance of these two leading conceptions in resolving the general issue of whether legal protection of IP rights is justified.

US real estate investment trusts (REITs) typically distribute more dividends than required by tax regulations. This paper aims to focus on discretionary dividends, and examines the impact of information asymmetry on this excess component of dividends.

This paper considers a set of US REITs with reported taxable income figures over the 2000‐2007 period, and employs regression analysis to examine the influence of information asymmetry on the excess component of dividends. The explained variable is specified as excess dividends scaled by total assets. Excess dividends are dividends paid over the mandatory dividend payments calculated with taxable income, instead before‐tax net income. Following the REIT studies of Hardin and Hill and Han, this study employs Tobin Q as the proxy for asymmetric information.

Contrary to Hardin and Hill's conclusion, but consistent with dividend signaling theory as well as agency cost explanations, the results indicate that REITs with higher level of asymmetric information pay out significantly more excess dividends. Nevertheless, in contrast to Deshmukh's study on manufacturing firms, the REIT results are against the prediction of the pecking order theory.

The paper is one of the few studies that explicitly examine the factors influencing REIT decision on discretionary dividends. Contrast to previous studies, this study is able to obtain taxable income and compute the discretionary dividends more accurately. Furthermore this paper is able to provide evidence against the pecking order theory, which is not investigated in the existing REIT dividend studies.

To provide an overview of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) recently proposed rulemaking package relating to standards of conduct for investment professionals. The three proposals included: interpretation regarding the standard of conduct of investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; Form CRS which both registered investment advisers and registered broker-dealers would have to provide to retail investors; and proposed regulation best interest.

Reviews and summarizes the three individual proposals.

The SEC has proposed this rulemaking package in order to meet three goals: enhance retail investor protection and decision making, preserve investor choice and cost, and raise retail investor awareness of whether they are doing business with a registered financial professional. The SEC is looking for feedback, particularly from retail investors, on whether these proposals would achieve the SEC’s goals.

Summarizes the three proposals in a manner that provides insight into how investment advisers and broker-dealers would be required to conduct business with retail investors if the proposals are adopted in the current form.

To provide an overview of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recently adopted rule 22e-4 (Rule 22e-4) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (1940 Act) regarding investment company liquidity risk management programs.

Reviews and summarizes the specific requirements of Rule 22e-4 to better enable investment companies and their boards to comply by the general compliance date of December 1, 2018 (smaller complexes have until June 1, 2019).

The SEC clarifies that each fund should tailor its particular Program to ensure that it is adequately assessing and managing its specific liquidity risk based on its investment strategies and risks; however, it is not expected that a fund would eliminate all adverse impacts of liquidity risk. In addition, under the final rule, while the board does have certain duties and responsibilities with respect to certain aspects of a fund’s Program, the SEC pared back much of what had been in the Proposing Release to ensure that the board’s role remains one of oversight and not management.

Although the compliance date does not occur for almost two years, funds and their boards should begin reviewing the Rule 22e-4 requirements now and developing their Program.

Practical guidance from experienced investment management attorneys that provides insight into expectations for compliance with Rule 22e-4.

When organizations implement a new information system (IS), they often experience users' resistance behaviors. This study explored the effects of IS self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and anxiety on resistance to IS change within the hospitality domain. It also compared these relationships before and after completing e-learning courses for a new IS.

Survey responses were gathered from current and future hospitality employees. All hypotheses were tested via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results demonstrated that (1) IS self-efficacy had significant effects on both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of IS; and (2) IS anxiety had a significant impact on resistance to IS change, both before and after completing the e-learning courses. The results also showed that self-efficacy had a significant effect on anxiety and, in turn, resistance to change, after completing the e-learning courses, but not prior to the training.

This study addressed the lack of theory-driven empirical research on predictors of user resistance to IS change, based on social cognitive theory, technology acceptance models, and user resistance research.

Based on the findings, hospitality operators and vendors can focus on improving factors influencing user adoption of a new IS when they design and implement it. Operators can design better change management strategies to reduce resistance to IS change.

Few investigations have been conducted to explain the relationships among the aforementioned factors, before and after completing e-learning for a hospitality IS.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the dilemma of exponential growth in economic policy and its implications on sustainable development.

The future of the world economy is premised in part on the assumption of an implicit law of increasing returns that has remained unchanged for centuries. Drawing on current data in per capita gross domestic product and population data, this paper explores the relationship between growth in populations and the distribution of wealth. Implications on economic and social policy reform are discussed, with an exemplar focus on economic incentives employed in several nations that are premised on an assumed relationship between population growth and economic return.

This paper demonstrates that much of current economic and social policy is grounded in centuries-old assumptions that may be inadequate for today's highly interrelated global and economic society, and that changing these policies would require a fundamental shift of mindset to recognise domestic human values within a global context.

Previous literature has paid less attention to the underlying assumptions of perpetual growth inherent to social and economic policy and the practicalities of its reconceptualization on global society.

The paper seeks to describe the establishment and progress of an online initiative: RIC – Researching the Information Commons.

Who has really challenged and thought through in a research sense about the issues that surround the commons provision of information; a concept dear to the hearts of many of the world's librarians? This question leads to the development of a researcher networking initiative, represented on the web as RIC (http://infocommons.curtin.edu.au).

The web site has a growing number of participants, not all working together, but who are interested in information commons matters from a research point of view.

RIC is a federated network of colleagues researching in this many faceted arena and it is slowly gathering momentum. Expressions of interest to join have been sought, and a web site has been developed.

RIC will operate through: openness and feedback; shared decision making; diversity within the commons; honouring social and legal equity amongst its members; and fostering sociability within the commons.

The vision for the RIC Group is to nurture and mentor a community of researchers interested in matters relating to the information commons, by being in itself an information commons.

The topic of information commons has considerable use and currency but there appears to be only one RIC.