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[News] [Rival] British Library in Bed with Microsoft, Hands Over E-mails

Britain: E-Mail Time Capsule in Works

,----[ Quote ]
| Now the British Library is appealing to ordinary Britons for their
| e-mails, saying it wants to create a snapshot of British life in 2007.
| 
| [...]
| 
| The e-mails will be collated and indexed by Microsoft Corp., which
| has previously partnered with the library to digitize books from
| its archive, and they will be available to researchers before
| the year's end.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070503/britain_e_mail_archive.html?.v=1

You might ask why they are 'in bed' together. Have a look at the link below.
Like the BBC, their little relationship with Microsoft is used to shut out
those who do not pay 'Windows/Vista tax'. It is information the public
actually pays, but requires Microsoft's tools to view.

In other news, find out why Microsoft loses money (and where), in case you
think that their latest trick indicates good financial health:

Microsoft to Challenge Attorney Fees

,----[ Quote ]
| Attorneys representing Microsoft Corp. in an Iowa class-action
| lawsuit said Thursday they plan to challenge the $75.5 million
| in fees and expenses sought by plaintiffs' attorneys.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070503/microsoft_trial_fees.html?.v=1

That is just one lawsuit among so many. Settlements aside...


Related:

Vista and British Library put da Vinci online

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft and the British Library have digitised two of Leonardo da
| Vincis' notebooks.
| 
| [...]
| 
| The British Library has created an updated version of its application
| called "Turning the Pages" which allows people to browse parts of
| its 150 million piece collection via a web browser. We heard how
| this works better using Vista.
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/30/vinci_notebooks_vista/

This needs Windows Vista to access.


Publish And Perish

,----[ Quote ]
| Alexander Rose, the executive director of the futurist Long Now
| Foundation, worries about the impermanence of digital information.
| "If you save that computer for 100 years, will the electrical plugs
| look the same?" he asks. "The Mac or the PC--will they be around?
| If they are, what about the software? " So far there's no business
| case for digital preservation--in fact, for software makers like
| Microsoft, planned obsolescence is the plan.
| 
| "The reality is that it's in companies' interest that software should
| become obsolete and that you should have to buy every upgrade,"
| Rose says. We could be on the cusp of a turning point, though, in the
| way businesses and their customers think about digital preservation.
| "Things will start to change when people start losing all of their personal 
| photos," Rose said.
`----

http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/books-information-preservation-tech-media_cx_ee_books06_1201acid.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/yyjqoh


Before the loveaffair with Microsoft:

British Library calls for digital copyright action

,----[ Quote ]
| In a manifesto released on Monday at the Labor Party Conference
| in Manchester, the United Kingdom's national library warned that the
| country's traditional copyright law needs to be extended to fully
| recognize digital content.
| 
| "Unless there is a serious updating of copyright law to recognize
| the changing technological environment, the law becomes an ass,"
| Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, told ZDNet
| UK. 
`----

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6119043.html

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