British Library Heeds Murdoch’s Digital Newsprint Warning
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When we reported from a lecture James Murdoch delivered a couple of weeks back (full transcript), he had criticised a British Library plan to digitise 40 million old newspaper pages.
Murdoch said: “This is not simply being done for posterity, nor to make free access for library users easier, but also for commercial gain via a paid‐for website. The move is strongly opposed by major publishers. If it goes ahead, free content would not only be a justification for more funding, but actually become a source of funds for a public body.”
But Patrick Fleming, a British Library associate director, quoted on Guardian.co.uk, says the accusation is “patently not true”...
Guardian.co.uk: “(The library’s) idea is to digitise newspapers from before 1900 – which should be out of copyright because the copyright in a newspaper article extends to the life of the writer plus 70 years. Meanwhile, Fleming says, ‘any newspaper published after 1900 will only be made available with the consent of the copyright owner’.”
Accordingly: “Not only will none of News International’s titles be digitised without permission, but in a major retreat the Times archive pre-1900 won’t be digitised, Fleming says, because the Times has already done that.”
Nevermind its new “paywall” plans - Times Newspapers already had a pay-for archive for accessing newspapers dated between 1785 and 1985.
@robertandrews
Jun 7, 2010 5:19 AM ET
Posted In: Legal, Media & Publishing, Newspapers, Online News, british library, james murdoch
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