[WikiEN-l] More Murdochry

Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com
Mon Jun 7 09:03:51 UTC 2010


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/07/james-murdoch-british-library

James Murdoch criticises the British Library's plans to digitise old 
newspapers. And I quote: "public sector interest is to distribute 
content for near zero cost – harming the market in so doing ..."

I think the WMF should be getting a hearing in this debate. Every page 
of free content we post does clearly remove someone else's chance to 
profit from selling that content. I want to hear the argument that the 
Murdoch line is nothing better than an attempt to justify "enclosing the 
commons" simply because someone can then profit. You have to look at 
whose land it was in the first place, not whether the result can be 
monetised.

Charles




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