James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, has attacked plans by the British Library to digitize the national newspaper collection, warning that public bodies should not decide how copyrighted material is exploited for commercial gain.
On Wednesday the British Library announced it was linking up with Dundee-based IT firm Brightsolid – part of publisher DC Thomson which also owns Friends Reunited – to digitise more than 40 million pages from the national newspaper collection – which spans three centuries and 52,000 local, national and international titles. The archive was built up using the library's power to demand copies of all newspapers printed in the UK. The archive, however, will only be available online as a paid-for service.
On Wednesday the British Library announced it was linking up with Dundee-based IT firm Brightsolid – part of publisher DC Thomson which also owns Friends Reunited – to digitise more than 40 million pages from the national newspaper collection – which spans three centuries and 52,000 local, national and international titles. The archive was built up using the library's power to demand copies of all newspapers printed in the UK. The archive, however, will only be available online as a paid-for service.
You can read more in an article by Richard Wray published in the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/21/james-murdoch-attacks-british-library
