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From: jason@CND.HP.COM (Jason Zions)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: building an interstate (data) highway with no roadmaps
Message-ID: <406.677532108@hpcndjdz>
Date: 21 Jun 91 20:21:48 GMT
References: <9106210948.AA11268@kauai.MCL.Unisys.COM>
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The Library of Congress and the National Archives are very special
organizations. The LofC is not selective in what it keeps in its collection;
every publisher is required to submit two copies (if memory serves) to the
LofC to be issued a valid ISBN number, which is close to mandatory in the
publishing business.

Were a software archive to be founded under government auspices subject to a
charter which required it to keep a copy of everything submitted, I'd be
less leary; however, such a charter is unlikely and perhaps undesired.

Finally, I agree that other archivers would spring up providing those bits
the government refused to provide; those archives, however, would not have
the special financial (i.e. taxpayer or cross-subsidized from transport
fees) support that a government archive would have, and could not compete
with such an archive on a fair basis.

Jason