[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Usenet archives sold?

["jon lebkowsky" <jonl@well.com>]

Um, deja has evidently gone away, Ronda. ebay's Half.com acquired the
'Precision Buying Service,' and Google acquired the usenet archives.  Google
would not have acquired the archives without the intention of making them
accessible.  Because Google's search technology is (arguably) better than
deja's, this is a good thing.

Google posted this info:
"Due to time and technical constraints, it is not feasible for Google to
maintain the interface and feature-set to which you are accustomed. We have
been working hard to make this beta service available while we transition to
a more full-featured offering. We appreciate your understanding and patience
as we add the features you expect (including posting and better browsing)."

Nobody owns usenet. Anybody could archive the newsgroups. Deja built its
business on such an archive, but its business failed. It had every right to
sell the archive that it had collected and indexed and offered as a core
service for years.  If some public or academic institution wants to archive
usenet, it should certainly do so, but IMO it has no inherent 'right' to the
archives that deja accumulated.

thanks,
Jon L.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ronda Hauben" <ronda@ais.org>
To: <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 7:53 AM
Subject: <nettime> Usenet archives sold?


>
> There is a press release at google that they have bought the Usenet
> archives from deja.com.
> http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html
>
> But the archives is a public trust not something that should
> be being sold by one company to another.
>
> Also it isn't clear that google will be able to make it
> available or under what conditions they will make it available.
>
> The usenet archives posts shouldn't be for sale.
>
> It does need a proper public or academic home to continue to
> archive usenet and make the archives available.
>
> There was a petition that over 3000 people signed asking deja.com
> not to sell the archives but to keep it available.
>
>    http://www.PetitionOnline.com/dejanews/
>
>
>
> Ronda
>
> ronda@panix.com
> http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/netbook/
> http://www.ais.org/~ronda
>
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