Comments on: When online publications erase writers’ careers

By: Dan Akst

Dan Akst — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:07:35 +0000

Regarding some safeguard against the kind of thing described here, there is a precedent of sorts in book publishing contracts, which commonly contain a reversion-of-rights clause if a book should fall out of print for a certain period–perhaps a year. A similar clause could restore rights to an online writer.

By: Mick Weinstein

Mick Weinstein — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:05:49 +0000

Yet another reason to work with us at Seeking Alpha – file backup!

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:48:41 +0000

It doesn’t fix the broken links, but where content itself is MIA there is the Internet Archive and its ‘Wayback Machine’. iht.com and portfolio.com will be preserved there forever. Really, it’s a stupendous resource.

For example try http://web.archive.org/web/2008021008392 5/www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-m overs/2008/02/08/exxon-mobil-plays-hardb all-with-venezuela

By: Thomas Crampton

Thomas Crampton — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:02:43 +0000

@cna

Yes, the work is still available on Lexis-Nexis, but that is only were a few people can access it.

The real value of the Internet and social media is the interlinking of information and ideas.

Anyone following up on IHT links posted on blogs or discussion boards is now sent to a generic page.

This means the NY Times will be losing revenue and frustrating readers. Hardly something you want to do at a time when revenues are dropping so fast!

By: sandy

sandy — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:43:07 +0000

Agree Felix, one need to be cautious on these things, The contract need to be reviewed again for avoiding such things in future for the benefit of everybody…

Cheers,
Sandy

By: Geoff

Geoff — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:41:12 +0000

Embedding the byline within the article is a way to circumvent evil webmasters from deleting your work, never to be seen again.

By: rkillings

rkillings — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:19:29 +0000

Why not just duplicate your byline in *the text of the post*?

By: cna

cna — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:49:15 +0000

Surely Crampton’s work is still documented by Lexis-Nexis, correct? It doesn’t do a lot of good for those without a subscription to Lexis-Nexis, but it’s still documented.

Prior to the advent of the internet, was is common for publishers to archive all printed material themselves or did they leave that job to libraries and indexing services?