this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025

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542

The Internet Archive needs your help, seriously (blog.archive.org)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

69 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Yet again the Internet Archiving is suffering big this time, a coalition of major record labels filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive demanding $700 million for the extensive catalog of 78 rpm records. 78s are sometimes more than a century old at this point and i bet a lot of them are out of copyright, but i suppose for the few that still are majors are hitting it big towards the IA

This lawsuit is pretty much another existential threat to the Internet Archive and everything it preserves, including the Wayback Machine, and we're fucked if we ever lose access to the Wayback Machine.

the original article asked to sign a petition, but i think a more logical way to support is to donate them directly so that they have more money to better defend themselves in court in this and other cases they'll undoubtedly face in the future

(page 2) 21 comments

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 3 days ago

Please move out of USA where trolls are more prevalent

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (8 children)

There must be a lot of complicated aspects to this that I don't understand.

The right course of action seems obvious to me...

Firstly spin out a separate organisation to manage the wayback machine. It shouldn't be part of the pot defending against litigation like this.

Secondly, and I feel silly saying this but... don't institutionalise the perpetration of rights violations? In the age of distributed databases and the dark web and the block chain and federation surely we can figure out a way to archive media that doesn't put people or organisations at risk of litigation.

Finally, if the individuals involved with IA are not liable for the debts of IA then the organisation should fold because that's practically free compared to defending against these litigious assholes.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The reason this is as public as it is is because an archive like this is more useful the more is archived. If you manage it in an entirely hidden way, you basically won't get it accessible from the clearnet and are relegated to keep it on Tor or similar. And once you do that, a lot less people will use it and thus it'll be a lot less useful.

Also, they are not only fighting for an archive to exist, they're fighting for it being a societally acceptable thing to exist.

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[–] [email protected] 229 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Internet Archive should seriously consider moving outside US juristiction.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

irc, it's already backed up to multiple other countries. I assume this isn't some crazy idea, and they've considered this themselves.

Donate to help their defense, or donate to help them move their infrastructure. I think they need money more than they need big brain ideas.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 days ago

willing to bet that the ia does a million more for artists than the record labels ever did

[–] [email protected] 91 points 3 days ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

thank you so much, you're doing god's work

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[+] [email protected] -68 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Can Internet Archive just stop copyright violations?

Do not get me wrong, I am all for piracy, but usually pirate websites hide themself (like libgen, for example), so that no lawsuit possesses a threat to the resource itself or resource owners.

IA, on the other hand, are pretentious pirates. They either believe that they are untouchable or just do not care in general. And when it causes expected result once again, they start running around asking for help and telling how dangerous it is for their entire work.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 days ago (2 children)

IA, on the other hand, are pretentious pirates.

Homie, the IA is an archive. Their first and foremost aim is to make culture and knowledge available to the masses. You should read the blog entry. It's not like they're distributing the latest Marvel slop.

[+] [email protected] -51 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (6 children)

The law is a law. Their aims do not override it. They are getting what any sane person would expect. Nothing prevented them from separating their legal and shady operations to separate entities. That, at least, would prevent compromising the whole operation. If someone puts his head in a lion mouth, it is still his fault, at least partially, that lion kills him.

It's not like they're distributing the latest Marvel slop.

I doubt this argument will hold in court.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You claimed it was piracy. Piracy is not when you go to a library and listen to something the label doesn't sell anymore. Piracy is downloading the latest Imagine Dragons slop without paying.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago

The law can be wrong, and it would be cool if the hard work of others is maintained while that's fixed.

You're still missing the point tho.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

The law is the law in the very specific contexts in which it applies and is heavily open to interpretation and bias, which is (in theory) why trials and lawsuits exist.

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[+] [email protected] -21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

They lost that argument when they implemented the possibility to play games they host in the browser.

I'm all for an archive. I'm not sure IA are doing this right.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago

They acted like a regplar library: only one person was able to play concurrently. If that's not ok, then all libraries should get sued.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What good is an archive where you cannot access the content?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 days ago (1 children)

but come on, it's not like they're modern videogames or something, they're old stuff from the 80s and 90s that one would never be able to play without access to the original hardware, so even in that case it's about preserving the media, not committing plain copyright infringement to the original game publisher or something

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