Oh boy, oh boy. The news is here. The Internet Archive has acquired the Michelson Library out of where it had been stored for a decade, we're going to digitize it and put it online. blog.archive.org/2020/12/15/aft…
As soon as we were told the story about the Michelson Library being stored and seeking a home, we were one of the groups that sprung into action, offering to digitize the entire thing and house the materials.
This Research Library was one of the Hollywood secret weapons, and influenced countless films in their accuracy and approach, including The Birds, Reds, Scarface, Hunt for Red October, and more. It's been housed at Dreamworks, Zoetrops Studio, Paramount, and more.
Anyway. We got it, we're digitizing it, and you're going to start seeing it pop up next year. There's a documentary about the couple who ran this library, called "Harold and Lillian: A Love Story". imdb.com/title/tt468366…
To celebrate the acquisition of the Michelson Library, we're hosting a screening of the documentary in January. Sign up!
Stick with me, even if you don't believe me: In vintage and old-school computer fanboy circles, there were these ridiculous territorial fights over ... screenshots.
Not some specific screenshots and their meaning, or what the screenshots contained... but screenshots.
People (ok, mostly guys) were REALLY REALLY REALLY
REALLY
REALLY
REALLY possessive over "their" screenshots being used. Like, they'd have them up, and if you hotlinked, or even copied them, you were S T E A L I N G them.
Which, I get, I mean all that hard work of booting a disk or cartridge in an emulator, and then taking a screenshot and...
...well, actually, that's all the work was. So people were crazy possessive of these and they'd WATERMARK them, like they were the Sacred Papers of Zot.
The emulation of Flash before Flash disappears at the end of year continues at @internetarchive. I've begun splitting them into more and more specific sub-groups. So I'm announcing FLASH KIDS ZONE, for kid-friendly flashes, and FLASH ADVERGAMES, advertising-based flash games.
There were a LOT of games written for kids in Flash and put up at sites to keep them entertained. Many are simple arcade games with cartoon characters, and a few are essentially short films with minimal interaction. Check them out:
Advergames are relatively insidious, essentially games that are branded for certain products and then you're doing arcade gaming inside an ad. I also included branded interactive "toys" like make-your-own-thing that some sites had back then. It's here at:
If you have ANYTHING on DVD-Rs or CDRs, PLEASE PLEASE transfer them off NOW. PLEASE. They are probably already dead. Please.
DVD-Rs are small plastic plates with semi organic crap smeared on them and years ago a light slightly burnt some of the crap and the crap is fading. Data is already lost or will be. It is a terrible storage medium. Almost a fraud. Some die months after burning.
Glad everyone is thinking about long term digital storage. While I have you, please sign this petition and join the @EFF.
The story of how 135 pounds of package arrived at my door is interesting.
I was contacted by a fellow who had his Father's collection, and his father had been gone for a long time. And now he himself was facing eviction and housing issues, and he was concerned two suitcases of his father's collections would go into trash. He asked if I'd help.
I said sure, and the load off his mind was immeasurable. I had a local person (the donator was in London) come by and pick up the material, and take it in. The pickup volunteer spent months sorting the papers up, packaging them, and then got busy.
Section 230, which you're talking about repealing, is a protection from platforms to be liable for speech and works hosted on that platform. I know you were born in 1955, so you probably remember seeing Gangster movies. Let's use that for a quick explanation.
Common Carrier status, which was conferred upon telephones in 1934. This meant Gangsters could call one another and say things, and the phone company wasn't hauled into court for being a Gangster.
"Felony Streaming" - Turning unauthorized streaming, interpreted a whole bunch of ways, as a criminal felony, not a civil one.
CASE Act: Kangaroo court for allowing anyone, anywhere, to troll all platforms for $30k a hit copies of anything they claim they own
"Trademark Modernization Act", a gold-plated brick in the foundation of a whole range of enforcing control on items and material works, by making a whole range of trademark adjacent work into violations, subject to heavy fines