back to article Gov won't force publishers to hand paywalled content to libraries

The UK Government has scrapped plans to force publishers to place a copy of paid-for online content in legal deposit libraries for the public to access for free. The government had proposed new regulations governing what digital content should be made available to legal deposit libraries (LDLs), the six libraries that have the …

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  1. Zog The Undeniable
    FAIL

    Let's not beat around the bush here

    The decision was taken because it keeps Rupert Murdoch happy, and Murdoch owns this government by virtue of telling his mouth-breathing tabloid readers which way to vote.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
      Grenade

      The Truth ..... but not as you know it. Let's not beat around the bush here

      "The decision was taken because it keeps Rupert Murdoch happy, and Murdoch owns this government by virtue of telling his mouth-breathing tabloid readers which way to vote." ....... Zog The Undeniable Posted Tuesday 12th April 2011 08:59 GMT

      Oh please, Zog The Undeniable, that is an undeniable madness, surely, as Mr Murdoch and his hench spokespersons can only delude themselves with such grand pretensions of brainwashing power. And thus is such childish play to be more pitied than scorned in these halcyon days of CodeD Command and Control of Vrtual AIMachinery.

      Are we to be led to believe that News Corporation is an international cabal of deluded tools and self-serving fools? Why ever would they wish to paint themselves so? Is it not crazy whenever all of the world can so quickly know nowadays, and it is not as if the government do not recognise that successful digital delivery is the future key to analogous progress, is it. Indeed, El Reg, the Ever Ready, advised of the twit position most very recently ....... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/08/government_twit_pay/ ....... which prompted this hearty exchange with the centre of government, which doesn't bode well for their future as leaders in control of universally supported narratives.

      [blockquote]Comment by amanfromMars on April 11, 2011 at 9:31 am

      Oh dear, the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers a budget plan which focuses on reforming the economy to ensure jobs and growth for the future, and in two and a half weeks there are only six comments worth sharing with everybody.

      Methinks that says everything about what the public think and about how effective the Conservative leadership is in forging a future with command and control of the global digital medium and ITs mainstream media channels and virtual tunnels....... which considering the likes of a head of communications at Google being on board, is nothing short of being a disastrous indictment of the lack of knowledge and oomph systemic in both the capitalist system and party politics ..... with both of them being ever more blindingly apparent epic failures at delivering global needs and universal feeds above personal greed and gravy train seeds.

      Solve the Digital Delivery Dilemma and one has a Universal Solution to ...... well, practically and virtually everything and anything and most certainly those problems which are APT* and proven, and difficult and impossible to deny.

      * Advanced Persistent Threat ...... one of those SMART ZerodDay Vulnerability Trojan Worm Virus Bug thingies which are impossible to counter and defeat.

      How to control them is a suck it and see exercise probably, to mirror the success in the control of power in a man and/or a woman which whenever you can give them what they want, will have them seeding and feeding you with all future needs in a mutually beneficial and expanding, positively reinforcing and sustained feedback loop, ...... which is actually an ascending growth spiral with its base firmly rooted and routed in Virgin Intellectual Property Fields ..... with Virtual Terrain Teams, Master Piloting Great Game Plays.

      PS. ....... would someone please be so kind as to forward this post directly, behind the scenes, to Yasmine Edwards in the Cabinet Office, or just draw her attention to it here in the strange event of it appearing to garner universal comment, as it is being used to demonstrate any number of points which are apt in these changed communications times.

      Thank You .... and have a nice day.

      http://blog.conservatives.com/index.php/2011/03/23/putting-fuel-in-the-tank-of-britains-economy/ [/blockquote]

      To see how IT fares in Downing Street, give the Conservatives a visit to see if they deem the approval of the Truth, a standard to bear and rally support for ....... for one would certainly wish for much better than just this pathetic return..... [Thank you for your comment! It has been added to the moderation queue and will be published here if approved by the webmaster.] ..... to justify allegiance and the sharing of future deeds.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I smell lobbyists.

    Well that's clever, so in the future there will be no record of news stories that were in pay-walled areas of the 'net.

    I can see huge gaps forming in our history.

    Still, if it means there's no record of Murdoch then it's a win as far as I'm concerned.

    1. irish donkey
      Megaphone

      History is written by the winners...

      …and in the future with no independent retention of news the only news available will be the news you are allowed to see.

      In years to come when the historians ask ' Where did all the money go in the noughties and why did we blow up Libya? Why did Sony sue GeoHolt?

      Funny I can't seem to find that article. Here try this one on Jordan's Boobs. They were very popular around that period.

      Library's (free access to information) is a human right in this country and should be protected in all its forms and manifestations.

  3. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    WTF?

    What ?

    So if I print a book, which people have to pay for, then I have to give a free copy to the British library (costing me money).

    But if I publish it online and people have to pay for it, I don't have to give a copy to the British Library, even though it would cost very little to do so?

    Does this mean that when all books are digital only that you have to pay for, there will be no more Birtish Library?

    1. Just Thinking

      Depends how it works

      "But if I publish it online and people have to pay for it, I don't have to give a copy to the British Library, even though it would cost very little to do so?"

      If the library then make it available for anyone to download for free, it could cost you a lot of money, because nobody would pay to access your site.

      We need to redefine what "publishing" means, and pretty quick.

  4. The BigYin

    What?

    Content has previously always been behind a paywall. One had to buy the book/magazine/paper to get at the content. Why does it make any difference if the paywall is electronic?

    Not content with forcing libraries to re-buy e-books after a measily few loans, all publisher have to do is slip all their content behind a veneer of a paywall and they can strangle the supply to everyone. It's like DVD Region encoding, but worse.

    Once again the government is pandering to the needs of business and ignoring the needs of the people. Can anyone actually tell the difference between the Tories and Labour?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's good.

    Are they also going to force Google to not steal the content?

    1. MJI Silver badge

      Perhaps Google should ignore pay sites

      Now that would have an effect!

  6. heyrick Silver badge
    FAIL

    Well, well, well...

    Thirty years down the line, when people want to examine what happened way-back-when, said publications will no longer be available in the obvious place. It'll be like they went bankrupt or just ceased trading in 2011.

    Our loss? Perhaps.

    Their loss? Definitely.

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