RE: The Economist and e-Archiving

["Karl A. Kocher" <kakocher@ucdavis.edu>]

On Sun, 22 Jun 2003, Rick Anderson wrote:

[Chuck Hammaker's comment:]

>Wiping out the record of my saying unspeaklable things about someone or
>something destroys the full history of that action.
> 
...
> 
>The Internet is a means of distribution.  You can't stop distributing
>something and continue distributing it at the same time.

That is the fundamental problem in a nutshell.  If one purchases content
in a retainable format, one possesses the copy, no matter what a court or
a tyrant decrees.  If one only acquires a right to view, one possesses
nothing tangible; there is no historical record when the electricity goes
off or the cable is cut.  This all points to the fundamental importance of
the right of the purchaser to retain an archival copy - subject of course
to the traditional restraints of copyright - if there is to be a
historical record.