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https://www.computerworld.com/article/3593110/leave-the-internet-archive-alone.html>
"The web has been a mixed blessing for people who care about information. Yes,
it’s made it easier than ever to access facts and opinions from around the
globe — but it also throws out older data as quickly as it brings in new data.
(And let’s not even talk about propaganda!)
One shining beacon for recording truthful and accurate records throughout the
web’s history has been the Internet Archive.
The Archive was created by Brewster Kahle, who, beginning in 1980, wanted “to
build a library of everything.” His first step in that direction was creating
the Internet’s first distributed search system, the Wide Area Information
Server (WAIS).
When he founded the Archives in 1996, his ambitious goal was to provide
“universal access to all knowledge.” Kahle and his friends have been remarkably
successful. Today, the Archives holds digital copies of 44 million books and
texts, 15 million audio recordings, 10.6 million videos, 4.8 million images, a
million software programs, and even a copy of Computerworld from 1969.
To do this, he created the Internet Archive and its associated projects,
including the Wayback Machine, which allows users to view archived versions of
more than 866 billion saved web pages, and the Open Library project, which aims
to create a web page for every published book.
It’s that last project that got the Archives into legal hot water. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Kahle opened the library for free ebook borrowing via the
Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) program. Publishing companies were not amused
and the Internet Archive lost the resulting lawsuit, Hachette v. Internet
Archive. The court rejected the Archive’s fair use defense, finding that its
digital lending practices infringed on publishers’ copyrights.
That’s a huge problem on its own. The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3)
non-profit with a gross revenue in its most recent 990 filing of only $30.5
million. For the size of the job it’s undertaken, it’s grossly underfinanced.
Recently, though, adding insult to injury, the Archive has been subjected to
one cyber-attack after another.The first major incident occurred Oct. 9-10 and
involved two simultaneous attacks: First, hackers exploited a GitLab token,
compromising the Archive’s source code and stealing user data from 31 million
accounts. Concurrently, a pro-Palestinian group called SN BlackMeta launched a
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, temporarily knocking the site —
and the Wayback Machine — offline.
Blackmeta said it hit the site because it belongs to the United States, which
supports Israel in the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict. Uhm, no, no it
doesn’t. The only cause the Internet Archive espouses is freedom of
information, and it has no connection with the US government."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
