The Living Computing Museum Is Shutting Down, and the Internet Archive Lost Their Court Case
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Published 2024-06-28
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Well, a few days ago, news broke that the Living Computers Museum and Labs in Seattle is going to be shutting down. Originally funded and opened by Paul Allen, the museum has been closed since the start of the pandemic, and well, now its closing its doors for good, and all items in its collection will auctioned off or otherwise sold.
While I can hope that these items will find new homes, many are likely destined to private collections, or worse being thrown out entirely. To say this is a blow for retrocomputing enthusiasts, as well as computer history as a whole is something of an understatement.
All Comments (21)
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Bob's name is "supnik", not "sputnik"
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A huge loss. This was a great place to visit. Wish another MS executive would have picked it up in Allen's memory.
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So sad. Allen's hiers don't give a damn about his passions and his legacy. They could have donated the items to another museum, but wanted to extract every penny from the estate like his millions of dollars of other assets weren't enough. š
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what a huge loss for the entire world. LCM was the only place on the planet that I know of that had an operational CDC 6600. I hope that someone can save the artifacts that are there.
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My school asks us to use internet archive links when citing websites; I can't imagine how many bachelor's and master's papers would essentially lose their sources should the internet archive go down. It's mind-boggling that there is no law to prevent losses like these, it's like these governments are willing to shoot themselves in the foot
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This is a really disappointing revelation. I really hope that faithful collectors end up getting their hands on various stuff that the computing museum provides/sells because this is the kind of history that needs preservation.
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And this is why sites like sci-hub, annas archive, the eye, and library genesis must be supported. IP laws have gotten out of hand and are hurting our ability to preserve history, and provide access to important information that should be freely available to everyone.
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Thank you for alerting us, and the world, to this crisis. Hopefully solutions can be found to permit preservation of these critical archives for future generations. Once these are lost, they are gone and this is truly a major loss for everyone.
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Ah publishers. They do love to take every pound of flesh. Hope the IA wins its appeal.
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I had a ton of sales M/A/I Basic Four mini computer literature from the 80s on hardware with detailed specs. I donated it to the Rhode Island Computer Museum, they made good use of it. I was happy to find it a home.
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Let's see Paul Allen's vintage computer
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was literally planning a trip to visit with the kids (we live in idaho so its not just a quick trip) how sad
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What a damn shame. I hope at least some of these computers are sent to good collectors, and at the very least the documentation is archived. I hope the IA wins their appeal too, many of those books are likely irreplaceable.
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I decided not to donate through YouTube, cause I'm not sure I trust them, but I just donated $25 to the Internet Archive. I don't want to see this amazing institution fall to endless legal challenges.
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My wife & I met not long before the pandemic started. Being a pair of nerds, she promised to take me to the Living Computer Museum on a date sometime (she had been & I hadn't). Then the pandemic happened, they closed down, & you know the rest. Really sad I never got to go.
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get usagi up to the line
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Let's see Paul Allen's computer museum
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This was always my second favorite museum in Seattle (after Museum of Flight), mainly because all the computers were kept functional and interactive. You could easily kill an afternoon messing around with the machines. But unfortunately Allen's desire was for most his stuff to be sold off after his death.
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You don't hope for a better tomorrow! You make it. You bust ass and it's incredible to watch your journey and learn from you. I believe!
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Life is freaking sucks Internet archive to be lost in preservation #SaveInternetArchive
