Re: <nettime> Usenet archives sold

["S. Kritikos" <metacode@yahoo.com>]

--- Ronda Hauben <ronda@ais.org> wrote:

> Thanks for the information on these. I took a look at the 
> url's you gave for two and still need to take a look at the url for 
> www.istf.org
> 
> I didn't see any clear indication however that the organizations
> mentioned might be interested in Usenet and its development, especially
> its archiving, though it would be good if they were.

ISTF is about societal effects of the networking technology and access for
all. The way things are done is to make a proposal for a work group. For
example preserving USENET archives for future study might be the basis for
a proposal.

> I noticed that when I print a post from google from their limited
> Usenet arhives (what they themselves seemed to have saved), I get
> a copyright Google notice on the bottom of the post, even though
> it is someone else's post.
> 
> It seems that the fact Deja was willing to sell the archives to
> another company who planned to take it offline (whether permanently
> or temporarily) is a sign of the problem that those who care
> about Usenet and about the need to foster online collaboration and 
> contributions are faced with by the sale of the Usenet Archives
> to Google.

Recently there was a TV story about a dot-com liquidator. A very small
operation with a huge warehouse buying from failed dot-coms. There is
nothing in principle to stop from having the USENET archives ending up in
such a warehouse, a frightening thought but in tune with the economic
reality.

Regards
S. (Sam) Kritikos





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