Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal Volume 33 | Issue 2 Article 1 1-1-2017 "Through A Glass, Darkly" Technical, Policy, and Financial Actions to Avert the Coming Digital Dark Ages Richard S. Whitt Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation Richard S. Whitt, "Through A Glass, Darkly" Technical, Policy, and Financial Actions to Avert the Coming Digital Dark Ages, 33 Santa Clara High Tech. L.J. 117 (2017). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/chtlj/vol33/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal by an authorized editor of Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY” TECHNICAL, POLICY, AND FINANCIAL ACTIONS TO AVERT THE COMING DIGITAL DARK AGES Richard S. Whitt† This paper explains the digital preservation challenge, examines various technical, legal, commercial, and governance elements, and recommends concrete proposals in each area. The research is based on a wide-ranging review of pertinent books, reports, studies, and articles familiar to experts in the digital preservation community. Much of our global cultural heritage, and our own individual and social imprint, is at serious risk of disappearing. More and more of our lives is bound to the ones and zeroes of bits residing on a cloud server or a mobile device.