>the commission on preservation and access wrote an interesting report (the
>movie we saw came from them as well). An interesting idea was for the
>government to have the right to proactively do a "save the bits"
>intervention.
Hello,
(First, I don't know if it is customary to introduce oneself in the first
contribution to the list. If so, please refer to my sig - and maybe my
articles from 1993 about archival preservation at
http://art-bin.com/art/imemory1.html ).
Well, apropos of governmental intervention:
It is a curious fact - maybe common knowledge on this list - that in the
early 20th century many governments (e.g. England, Italy, Portugal,
Bolivia, and Mexico) had legal right to expropriate the copyright to a
work that had not been published for a long time - if the work was
considered as essential to the public in some respect. (Source: Swedish
encyclopedia "Nordisk Familjebok", printed in 1906.)
This was exactly the opposite to what the Bavarian provincial government in
Germany did when they expropriated the copyright to Hitler's Mein Kampf, to
prevent it *from* being published.
Karl-Erik Tallmo
Stockholm
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KARL-ERIK TALLMO, Swedish writer, journalist. Author of
three books. Expert in governmental committees on new media.
Articles and lectures at http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-50996
ICQ: 6651411
Editor of THE ART BIN at http://art-bin.com
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