I'm completely confused under what moral framework the fact that Google paid to buy the Dejanews archive makes a any difference.
To make it clear, for people who don't know:
Google Groups was originally Dejanews, which was a web based archive and front end to Usenet. Google started searching Usenet, but didn't have historical archives so they bought Dejanews.
Obviously no one who posted on Usenet got paid under this transaction.
It's like if Google bought a Mastadon archive off someone now: this argument seems to indicate that would be better somehow than Google archiving Mastadon posts themselves.
To make it clear, for people who don't know:
Google Groups was originally Dejanews, which was a web based archive and front end to Usenet. Google started searching Usenet, but didn't have historical archives so they bought Dejanews.
Obviously no one who posted on Usenet got paid under this transaction.
It's like if Google bought a Mastadon archive off someone now: this argument seems to indicate that would be better somehow than Google archiving Mastadon posts themselves.
I don't understand why at all?