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The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

ianvisits.co.uk

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Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#31

Post by vidarh »

Normille wrote: post #24
cube00 wrote: post #2

> The British Library keeps to a ‘safe date’ when determining when a newspaper can be considered to be entirely out-of-copyright, which is 140 years after the date of publication. It's depressing that copyright has been extended so far it's now longer then any single individual's possible lifetime.

Oh. It's worse than that. Copyright apparently extends back to the middle ages: https://stiobhart.net/2021-04-8-bubble-trouble/

The article does not say that. It conflates copyright and trademarks a couple of places, but it's clear that this is a combination of Redbubble applying their own over-cautious policies combined with trademark registrations, not copyright.

There are plenty of issues with trademarks too, but they are very different to copyright.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#32

Post by dalbasal »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #30
zozbot234 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes even less sense, though. Yesterday's news does not really compete with today's news, they're effectively in separate markets.

So? Yesterday's books, movies, and music compete with today's books, movies, and music. Nobody cares about the news one way or the other. So the news gets treated just like everything else.

Well... the fair use case and/or the public good case are pretty strong for news.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#34

Post by 5faulker »

cube00 wrote: post #2

> The British Library keeps to a ‘safe date’ when determining when a newspaper can be considered to be entirely out-of-copyright, which is 140 years after the date of publication. It's depressing that copyright has been extended so far it's now longer then any single individual's possible lifetime.

It's almost as if they're slowly declassifying documents over time.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#35

Post by simonw »

Normille wrote: post #25
OJFord wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, it's nicely parametrised and easy to browse; shame they decided to require free registration in order to actually view anything though.

You only get to see three pages for free. The original submission title is really misleading: >Try the British Newspaper Archive for FREE >View 3 pages FREE when you register to help you get started

Presumably that copy refers to how the site used to work prior to today, when they announced the new million free pages: https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2021/08/09/introd...

That blog post has a screenshot of an interface where you can chose to search either in "Free To View" or "Subscriber Access" - so presumably you now also get 3 free "subscriber access" pages.

Confirmed: I created an account and I'm able to view unlimited pages with the "Free To View" filter.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#36

Post by JackFr »

dalbasal wrote: post #11
cube00 wrote: post #2

> The British Library keeps to a ‘safe date’ when determining when a newspaper can be considered to be entirely out-of-copyright, which is 140 years after the date of publication. It's depressing that copyright has been extended so far it's now longer then any single individual's possible lifetime.

This needs to change, big time. There is almost no cash value to an article one day later, yet we completely impoverish the public domain for its sake. Not only are creators of valuable works is usually pretty distant from direct ownership anyway, there's no possible way for them to profit directly from this work. The only way a spotify-like deal works is because copyright ownership is conglomerated. IMO, public (esp…

> There is almost no cash value to an article one day later, yet we completely impoverish the public domain for its sake.

If there is no value to an article one day later, it’s literally impossible that restricting it impoverishes anyone.

Copyright law is messed up, but demanding access to something by asserting it’s worthless makes no sense.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#37

Post by jfax »

I just came back from - actually, physically - visiting the British Library last week to do some research in the newsroom with microfilm and all.

Title of this piqued my interest, but looking at the details, but the selection of papers they're adding seems kinda meh. Mostly the sort of local papers that British Newspaper Archive always had, and still can't compete with the horrendously proprietary Gale and ProQuest archives, which have national papers (Guardian, Observer, etc) and require physically turning up to the library to use.

I used to have a pay-as-you-go subscription to BNA, to spite the monthly pay option that I figure I wouldn't make the most of, but it quite scandalously "expired".

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#38

Post by [deleted] »

JackFr wrote: post #36
dalbasal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This needs to change, big time. There is almost no cash value to an article one day later, yet we completely impoverish the public domain for its sake. Not only are creators of valuable works is usually pretty distant from direct ownership anyway, there's no possible way for them to profit directly from this work. The only way a spotify-like deal works is because copyright ownership is conglomerated. IMO, public (esp…

> There is almost no cash value to an article one day later, yet we completely impoverish the public domain for its sake. If there is no value to an article one day later, it’s literally impossible that restricting it impoverishes anyone. Copyright law is messed up, but demanding access to something by asserting it’s worthless makes no sense.

[deleted]

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#39

Post by cpach »

reaperducer wrote: post #20
sebzim4500 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they really have automated systems searching for 50+ year old newspapers? Probably a lot of them haven't even been digitised before, so it would be impossible to search for them in an automated way.

From personal experience, I can tell you that there are automated systems searching for such pieces of art. As for newspapers, all it takes is one copyright troll to realize it's happening, and suddenly there's lawsuit settlements everywhere, making him rich.

The trolls can always try. OTOH I would be a little surprise if, a) one can intimidate The British Library by just sending some silly nastygrams, b) The British Library either doesn’t have in-house counsel or didn’t consult competent law firms before publishing these papers.

Re: The British Library puts 1M newspaper pages online for free

#40

Post by pessimizer »

jack_riminton wrote: post #23
reaperducer wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From personal experience, I can tell you that there are automated systems searching for such pieces of art. As for newspapers, all it takes is one copyright troll to realize it's happening, and suddenly there's lawsuit settlements everywhere, making him rich.

For that to happen they'd have to be the owners of the Copyright, they're not exactly patent trolls who can use the law creatively. The Newspapers are largely regional (and mostly defunct) papers. Who at the Derby Evening Telegraph is going to waste lawyers fees getting a Library to remove 100year old content?

Patent trolls own the patent.
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