Editing Records/Litigation

From Bibliotheca Anonoma

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It is said that the Internet never forgets, but websites rise and fall all the time on the internet: server bills go unpaid, untold numbers of startups have been dissolved by investors, and communities splinter, collapse, and may come together again in new forms. While some aspects of websites are archived by scrapers such as the Internet Archive and those run by this very organization, it may not be easily possible to understand the context, and a lot of key information, witnesses, and data that would have been common sense or easily accessible at the time is no longer accessible or well understood far into the future. This means that very little remains of a website may still exist today, much like a company's records are tossed and lost to time if not properly preserved.
It is said that the Internet never forgets, but websites rise and fall all the time on the internet: server bills go unpaid, untold numbers of startups have been dissolved by investors, and communities splinter, collapse, and may come together again in new forms. While some aspects of websites are archived by scrapers such as the Internet Archive and those run by this very organization, it may not be easily possible to understand the context, and a lot of key information, witnesses, and data that would have been common sense or easily accessible at the time is no longer accessible or well understood far into the future. This means that very little remains of a website may still exist today, much like a company's records are tossed and lost to time if not properly preserved.


This is where litigation: court proceedings and their legal opinions and subpeonas, become crucial documents to historians. For one, background, evidence, subpoenas, and testimonies brought before the court are generally primary or secondary sources, most of all described and recorded under pain of oath. With mandatory subpeonas, the courts thereby gain access to any low or high profile citizen to make discoveries that would otherwise never be told without coercion. While there remains a major motive for defendants, prosecutors, witnesses, or even the court to obscure, obstruct, or frame some evidence, generally it can be assumed that all parties make their best effort to establish known facts of the world: as long as it is deemed relevant to the case, whereas data deemed irrelevant is not recorded. History is what is written, not what is untold.
This is where litigation: court proceedings and their legal opinions and subpeonas, become crucial documents to historians. For one, background, evidence, subpoenas, and testimonies brought before the court are generally primary or secondary sources, most of all described and recorded under pain of oath. With mandatory subpeonas, the courts thereby gain access to any low or high profile citizen to make discoveries that would otherwise never be told without coercion. While there remains a major motive for defendants, prosecutors, witnesses, or even the court to obscure, obstruct, or frame some evidence, generally it can be assumed that all parties make their best effort to establish known facts of the world relevant to the case. History is what is written, not what is untold.


Another key factor in the usefulness of court proceedings is their appeals to the judge and jury who represent the broader public, who are assumed not to be familiar with most, if any aspects of the case or technologies at all. Therefore, great effort is made by lawyers to subpoena witnesses to describe the background, communities, and facts involved in the case under pain of oath.
Another key factor in the usefulness of court proceedings is their appeals to the judge and jury who represent the broader public, who are assumed not to be familiar with most, if any aspects of the case or technologies at all. Therefore, great effort is made by lawyers to subpoena witnesses to describe the background, communities, and facts involved in the case under pain of oath.
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