Internet Archive is Back!

 

Internet Archive is one of the most valuable online resources in the world, see: https://archive.org. As its name suggests, it is a repository of online material in the same way a library is for books. (I also firmly support free libraries.) In this age of government mass surveillance and censorship, its services are more precious than ever. Over the last few years it has suffered from a series of attacks in the form of lawsuits and hackers. These are apparently not connected, but I question that. They have recently lost a major court battle when it was ruled that the "emergency library" they had established during the Covid lockdown to keep people's access to books was a breach of copyright. The class action lawsuit by a consortium of high street publishers argued against the claim that the website's lending policy constituted fair use. In the 28th of last month the entire site was struck down by a massive distributed denial of service that caused the entire operation to cease. The hacktivist group "Anonymous Sudan" claimed responsibility and justified it by accusing Archive.org of being "pro-Israeli" and that they were fighting for the rights of the Palestinians. I'm not sure how an Ameircan based internet collection project can have anything to do with the Gaza conflict, but there you are. The hack included the seizure of over thirty-one million users' login details. Management advised everybody to change their passwords as soon as they can. This was of particular concern for me because I use Archive.org regularly as an alternative podcast source for HPANWO Radio. I've recently had to leave Spreaker so some of the recordings of some shows are only going to be there for a short while longer, see: https://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2024/10/quitting-spreaker.html. (I plan to find a backup site soon, possibly by simply purchasing some cloud space.) I also have a collection of old Mind Set and KBS programmes there which are treasured deeply by me and many others because, of course, Gareth Davies and Kev Baker have both died, see links below. Now I am pleased to report that Internet Archive is back. Well, it's not completely up and running yet; the media players are not yet working, but you can download, which is the main thing. Also you can't login yet, but when we can I will find out because I'll no doubt be prompted to change my password. Luckily all their data is intact. A few weeks ago something happened that made me appreciate Internet Archive all the more; I gave them a donation as a result. I found a PDF of a book I've been longing to read for ages, a real classic from 1979; but it's out of print and old copies cost literally three figures. I'm talking about Phone Calls from the Dead by D Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless. This is a study of one of the most common of all paranormal phenomena, strange phone calls or similar electronic communications from people who are known to have died, usually very recently. It's available here: https://archive.org/details/phone-calls-from-the-dead-d.-scott-rogo-raymond-bayless. On a common sense level, I don't consider this a breach of copyright for a book that is so old and commercially unavailable. I hope Archive.org will suffer no further mishaps; however, its operation rides in essence directly contrary to the role the government plan for the internet of the future, so unfortunately I think they should brace themselves. And so should we. Download everything there you find particularly important and keep it safe.
See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/05/ben-emlyn-jones-on-kbs-archive.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/05/ben-emlyn-jones-on-mind-set-video.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2022/04/ben-emlyn-jones-on-msp-second-series.html.