Do you have a ghoulish mind? Want to read about some of the most celebrated trials in British history, like the poisoner Dr. Crippen, the first man caught by wireless? Now you can. A project bringing all the trials of Britain’s Central Criminal Court, universally known as the Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913 have been digitized and put online as The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, often as digital images of the original court documents, with almost 200,000 trials online. And just in case you think that’s not a big deal, on its first day the site crashed because of demand. Assembled by the Open University, along with the universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, users can search the database by trial, crime or punishment and read about murders, suffragettes and sheep theft – which at one time carried the death penalty. Project co-director, Sheffield University Professor of History Robert Shoemaker, said: "Up until now this treasure trove of social, legal and family history has only been available to a few dedicated historians who were prepared to spend months peering at microfilm. Now everyone from schoolchildren, amateur historians and scholars working in a range of academic disciplines can have easy access to this wealth of information."
Tag Archive: Sheffield
Soccer Brings Benchmark Internet Libel Case
Freedom of speech on the Internet has been a contentious beast. Can you say what you like? In some countries, definitely not. But Britain has a long, venerable tradition of free speech. Surelyit’s possibly to voice your opinions, however inflammatory they may be, there? Apparently not, and the case revolves on a fan forum for the soccer team Sheffield Wednesday, which hasn’t been having a great season on the pitch. That’s brought criticism on the form Owlstalk, and that, in turn, has brought the ire of the club. They were so angry that they took the site owner, Neil Hargreaves, to court, accusing him andseveral of those who posted comments of defamatory remarks. The case was heard last week. Judge Richard Parkes, QC, ruled that Hargreaves wasn’t responsible for comments posted on hissite. However, he was told to reveal the identity of four posters who go by the user names "halfpint", "Ian", "Vaughan" and "DJ Mortimer," and who could facefurther action from the club. But it was only a partial victory for Wednesday. They’d wanted to names of 11 posters, but the judge rated a number of the comments as “far fromserious.” "It seems to me that some of the postings . . . border on the trivial," he wrote in his judgment. "I do not think that it would be right to make an order for thedisclosure of the identities of users who have posted messages which are barely defamatory or little more than abusive, or likely to be understood as jokes." In the long term, the rulingcan have interesting implications for those posting on forums, bloggers and others. Britain has strict libel laws, and yet it also has very strict data protection laws. As the Wednesday Four wonderwhat will happen to them next, the British legal community is also pondering the fallout of what seems like a simple decision.
Ghostlight Announces World War I FPS
If the slew of World War II video games being pumped out over the last few years have finally drained the era of its nostalgic appeal, you might try taking another step back in time – to World War I. That’s what the UK publisher Ghostlight is doing with its latest title, To End All Wars, a WWI-era first-person-shooter, which was officially announced on Thursday.
The game will attempt to recreate the trench-warfare of WWI using Epic’s Unreal Engine 3. Developer Kuju has assigned production of the game to its Chemistry studio (formerly Kuju Sheffield) which specializes in developing games for the Unreal engine.
NEC Launches $99 Dual Layer DVD Writer
The ND-3500A offers double layer 16X DVD+/-R/RW speed and the support of all major brands of CD, DVD +/-R /RW, and double layer media. This NEC rewritable drive is also compatible with all major PCbrands.
Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of the Solutions Platform Group for NEC Solutions America, believes the ND-3500A features the best DVD technology available in the market today.
