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.


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