News

This project records with sadness the death of Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore and one of the great pioneers of personal and home computing.

The online journal The Insider has published an article about the legal difficulties in preserving video games, with an interview with KEEP partner CSM

Read it at

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/22/saving-the-game-why-preserving-video-games-is-illegal/

It should be noted that The Insider has invited to Nintendo to comment.

The European project KEEP has released the final version of the Emulation Framework (EF). This software allows you to access old computer files and programs using emulation without the need to go through difficult installations and configurations. The software is released under the Apache v2 license and is free to be used by any organisation or individual.

The 4th edition of the KEEP Newletter is now available for download from the KEEP website. Click here to download

In this edition, you can read about

• The KEEP training workshop programme
• The KEEP Final Conference on 17 Feb 2012
• A step-by-step guide to the KEEP Emulation Framework
• An introduction to the TOTEM online database
• A summary of the contents of the Layman's Guide to the KEEP Legal Studies

In his blog on the US Library of Congress website, Bill LeFurgy, their Digital Initiatives Manager, has included the KEEP Project in his list of the Top 10 Digital Preservation Developments of 2011. KEEP was included in a list, alongside DROID 6 and JHOVE2 , Bill states, chosen because of "their broad impact on the practical work of stewarding content, or on raising the awareness of how important this work is for our culture."

The full list can be read on Bill's blog site at

http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/01/top-10-digital-preservation-developments-of-2011/

A new version of the KEEP Emulation Framework (EF) has been released today for public access.

Version 1.1.0 can be downloaded with accompanying documentation from Sourceforge at http://emuframework.sf.net

Note: the EF only comes with open source emulators and free software. Extending this set is possible using the graphical wizards of the EF but it requires the original software and license provided by you.

The KEEP project has now completed its first four training events, in Paris, The Hague, Zagreb and Rome has received very positive feedback from delegates. See http://www.keep-project.eu/ezpub2/index.php?/eng/Events/KEEP-Workshops-2011-2012 for details of forthcoming events in the series.

Our final workshop in Cardiff, Wales on 24 - 25 January 2012 - is now open for bookings. Click here to be taken to the bookings page.

The Rome event was held in conjunction with the Italian Videogames Developers Conference

Inge Angevaare of the Dutch Digital Preservation Coalition (NCD) has provided a very positive review of the Den Haag event in her blog at http://digitaalduurzaam.blogspot.com/2011/10/emulation-is-becoming-viable-option.html

The Project also filmed the main presentations, and these will be published soon.

At our shared workshop in Zagreb, where we were part of the INFuture 2011 conference, we not only gave a presentation to the plenary session about KEEP which was well received, but were also interviewed about the project on Croatian national television. See http://infoz.ffzg.hr/INFuture/ConferenceProgram.aspx for more details about the programme of this premier international conference

As a supplement to studies undertaken on the legal implications of using emulation within a digital preservation strategy, KEEP has also published a Layman's Guide which it is hoped will assist practitioners without detailed legal training to understand what issues they must address when preparing their digital preservation strategy.

The guide can be downloaded by clicking here and can also be found in our Public Deliverables page

Please download the second issue of the KEEP Newsletter.

In this issue you can read about:

• Summary of KEEP project objectives

• Legal Aspects of Emulation

• Environment Metadata for Emulation

• KEEP Virtual Machine (KVM)

• NESTOR - German network for digital preservation

• Events

KEEP Newsletter February 2011 issue

7th International Conference on Preservation of Digital Objects was hosted in Vienna in September 19-24, 2010 and brought together researchers and practitioners from around the world to explore the latest trends, innovations, and practices in preserving our digital heritage.

Our KEEP colleagues attended the conference and presented the paper about “Legal Aspects of Emulation” at the poster spotlight session.