What is Happening to The Internet Archive?

What do you think about the lawsuit against The Internet Archive? Could this lawsuit cause the Archive to collapse, and what does it mean for the future of media preservation?

#lawsuit #internetarchive #copyright

[blaa]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Not preserving the past will screw over our future.

[TheDigitalApple]

I really hope Internet Archive isn’t deleted as many pieces of recovered lost media could become lost once again, a nightmare for every media preservationist!

[sarahkatherine]

Copyright law is one of the reason we lose knowledge (in media form).
I still remember in 2014 I found some good thesis on the internet (full paper). A few years later I lost the file, and when I go look for it again the account that shared the file had been deleted due to copyright violation. I never found those thesis anywhere anymore.
The physical paper may still exist in a random library somewhere, but I never found anything about where it is.

[ixiahj]

Archives like these are generational memory. Its so easy to change dates and names in history by people who have an agenda if archives like these don't exist.

[Lifesizemortal]

copyright laws have been abused to the point of self-destruction

[cliffhansen]

As a researcher, Internet Archive is essential. There are so many books that it's the only realistic way to get access to. Just as importantly, the Wayback Machine is absolutely essential to the preservation of data and culture.

[captainalieth]

The internet Archive and Waybackmachine have been an absolute lifesaver for students, as well as preserving numerous lost media. If there's a copyright problem with some of the material on it, than just ask them to get rid of it. No need to shut it all down. Shame if it gets closed.

[SylveonTrapito]

It's incredible how copyright laws only wants to protect company business and does nothing for preservation.

[latt.qcd]

The Wayback Machine is what prevents every record being destroyed or falsified, every book being rewritten, every picture being repainted, and every date being altered.

[carlm]

The loss of IA would be as tragic as the burning of the Library at Alexandra. The internet is so ephemeral. Todays papers cite URLs. After a few years, those links no longer work. It galls me that companies that own the copyright steadily refuse to offer other agencies access while never intending to ever sell or distribute that material again. The original creators will never see another cent and even worse there name and creation will be lost to obscurity.

[BaronOfDaker]

For anyone wondering, Neil Gaiman was NOT tweeting that at the Internet Archive, he was tweeting it at the authors of the article. He supports the Archive.

[Hugh]

I have always had a problem with the whole notion of intellectual property and hence with copyright. Yes, creators should be rewarded for their intellectual labours, but civilization has progressed by the free transmission of ideas. This is the underlying dilemma that needs to be resolved. The IA is immensely valuable to humanity. It must not be allowed to die for the sake of publishers' profits.

[dena]

The internet archive is honestly a necessity. With how fickle the internet is, we've seen pages closed constantly. This really is historic and should be protected

[TheYoungsterGangster]

They better not get rid of the Internet Archive, it would be a modern day burning of the Library of Alexandria.

[skyeprophet]

As a professional Librarian, there really needs to be a fight by libraries and the library movement to ensure that digital media are treated in the same way as print media when it comes to rights to loan, resell etc. This was a great video on this. Let's hope legislators restore the balance and the status quo and that greedy publishers are not allowed to change the playing field in regards to access to information. The rights authors have under print materials should be transferred to digital materials. This unfortunately seems to be being worked out politically rather than in the interests of democracies or the traditional rights and values of libraries. Copyright law is a mess due to the actions of these US legislators. This has created glaring inconsistency between traditional copyright law and libraries in relation to physical books and copyright law in relation to digital media which needs to be reconciled towards the former or any form of "access to information" that is not controlled by the "$" will be at an end.

[Grizabeebles]

In Canada, under section 29.24 of the *Copyright Act*, a scanned digital copy of a book can potentially become the legal "source copy" if the original copy is ever destroyed.

The Internet Archive was keeping a physical inventory of the books it has scanned specificially to provide a physical accounting of its digital copies, as a physical backup and simply because destroying rare books for the purposes of preserving them is oxymoronic.

[aymala]

This isn't just a nightmare for media preservationists, the Internet Archive is important for researchers and historians too. IA is documenting the internet like no other organization, and offering open access to it's archive. This lawsuit is undermining the archive's role of documenting and compiling the history of the internet, which is an affront to History itself !

Imagine all those bits of information lost and erased from memory forever...

[ScorpionRanchTX]

The archive and wayback machine are incredibly important in fighting malicious content revisions.

[Eokoi]

The internet archive is crucial. It should be supported, not left alone for crumbling

[joshuaharper]

As an academic author (two [rather boring IMHO] academic tomes so far), I think copyright is mostly a racket to ensure profits for publishers, not authors. In academia, copyright just makes knowledge so expensive to access. As such, I support open access publications, and I hope the IA continues at least to be able to offer the short-term loans. (I think their COVID policy probably did violate copyright.)