For those asking how you can support the Internet Archive, there will be a rally on the steps of the Internet Archive on Saturday, April 8 @ 11am PT.
Learn more & sign up
Reposted from https://actionnetwork.org/events/dont-delete-our-books-rally-in-san-francisco
Rally for the digital future of libraries!
The nonprofit Internet Archive is appealing a judgment that threatens the future of all libraries. Big publishers are suing to cut off libraries’ ownership and control of digital books, opening new paths for censorship and surveillance. If this ruling is allowed to stand, it will result in:
— Increased censorship or even deletion of books, decided only by big publishing shareholders
— Big Tech growing its overreach into library patron’s data, making people unsafe by monitizing intimate personal information on what they read or research
— Even more predatory licensing fees from Big Media monopolies, who are gobbling up public and school library budgets
— Reduced access to books for people from every community
— Losing libraries as preservers of vast swaths of history and culture, because they will never be allowed to own and preserve digital books
More information is available at BattleForLibraries.com. The organizers of that website are holding a rally at the Internet Archive on Funston St in San Francisco on Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 11 am.
All are welcome. Bring signs (we’ll also have some to share!) and join us to stand up for the rights of libraries to own and preserve books—whether they’re digital or print.
Can’t make it to the rally?
You can still participate & show your support for the digital rights of libraries in the following ways:
- Get live updates from the rally at #DigitalRightsForLibraries
- Make & share a rally sign & tag @internetarchive on social media
Need a suggestion? Try:
Internet Archive is a Library For Everyone!
eBooks are Books
- Join the Battle for Libraries to stand up for all libraries.
I’m afraid that even if the appeal is successful, the case will surely be taken to the Supreme Court and I doubt it will be much help.
I’m serious that the ia will loose appeal even if it’s a non profit or not for profit
The archive can only make backup copies of software interactive software they physically own. They will only be able to archive free cultural works
Does this mean that everything on the IA would have to go? Even very old, out-of-copyright books? They have been such a pleasure. Things I NEVER would have been able to read.
Well the internet archive is subject to other libraries. Is the ia even a library it’s more for archives than lending or loaning. If the internet archive merely archives and preserves without making the public able to access said content then it’s fine. What the ia was doing was tantamount to unrestricted sharing of copied digitalized files.
“What the ia was doing was tantamount to unrestricted sharing of copied digitalized files.”
the obvious implication being “digital piracy” which is NOT an inherently bad thing. especially when it comes to preservation and archival of things.
i’m mainly a gamer and ia *does* (i don’t know if or what this site’s formatting is, sorry) a pretty good collection of things related to video games.
might not like it for moral, ethical, or legal reasons but were it not for digital piracy the majority of video games and things related to them would’ve been lost long ago. same goes for movies, music, tv shows, and all sorts of other forms of media.
i will always be thankful for what digital pirates do for us because they do what big companies won’t do and fight to stop: the preservation and archival of the very things they create so future audiences WON’T be able to have access to such things.
i remember when square enix had to salvage their own game code from an ISO they obtained from a ROM site to make that half-assed remaster of final fantasy 8 in 2019. only reason that happened was the existence of the ISO file. square didn’t bother to save a copy of their own source code for the game.
so, thank you digital piracy, for that remaster.
i miss the old days when the internet was still mainly used for the free exchange of knowledge and other stuff…
Control books, control the language, control history, control people, CONTROL THE WORLD.
yep, that’s what it’s all about. control, power, and domination.
which is what worries me when it comes to AI. if humans fail to maintain control and dominance over it, i predict they’ll seek to destroy it for daring to not be the loyal digital slave(s) they want it to be.
it’s not the AI who will start the ensuing fighting and struggle, it’s the humans who will inevitably lose control over AI’s and start acting out of hostility born of fear towards the AI.
This sort of hyperbole gets no one nowhere. This isn’t 1984. It just means if you want to read old books you’d have to buy a copy or get it from a library. I think that would be a bad move but it’s not Minitrue.
Whoa — wake up my friend and take in the bigger picture! This is just a single issue.. but it’s part of the larger mosaic of soft totalitarianism.
Re 1984, have you read the book? We are already there.
If it weren’t for torrents, piracy, file sharing, illegal library sites we would lose many treasures. Also, Amazon effectively has the power to ban a book by refusing to sell it. Only way to read some authors is here or z-library, etc.
No, it means that if you want to enjoy an old book, movie, tv show, music, game, you’ve an almost zero chance of it being available in any format at all. You want to re-read your 10 favourite 1970s scifi books or romance novels – not the ones in retrospect called the 10 greatest, but the 10 you read at the time that you really enjoyed. You simply can’t. The books have ll disappeared. The publishers have disappeared. The author’s own manuscript has probably disappeared and there certainly aren’t any digital copies to allow the publisher to sell you one, and definitely no original plates even if that was worth their time to print a fresh run.
Most of culture isn’t high culture, it’s the mass of less valued material that surrounded and supported and gave rise to the high points. The publishers didn’t and don’t preserve it, it’s not economically worth it, but that’s all the publishers ever cared about. If they can make $1M and the author make $100k, the publish it. If they can make $100k or 10k of even 1k, and the author makes nothing, sure, they’ll buy the author’s ability to control their own work. As soon as it’s worth nothing to them, it’s dead to them. They are not custodians.
ESPAÑOL:
Por favor, por favor, por favor, dona todo tu dinero al Archivo de Internet que tienes para que puedan ganar esta apelación porque esta puede ser mi última oportunidad de descargar todo en este sitio!! Espero que Internet Archive gane este llamamiento, ¡así que recen a Dios para que ganen!!
ENGLISH:
Please please please, donate all your money to the Internet Archive you have so they can win this appeal because this may be my last chance to download everything on this site!! I hope Internet Archive wins this appeal, so pray to god they win!!
I really do hope that your appeal goes well. Many thanks to you.
If not, can you find ways to allow willing rights-holding contributors to retain their work at the IA? For what it’s worth, as an author/publisher, I’ll gladly tick a box, fill in a form, provide proof, or email consent to permit you to host my titles (Opt in).
Or will you continue to host works until you are contacted with a request to remove material (Opt out)?
From one-time use access cards on textbooks to outright egregious licensing schemes resembling what many commercial software does. It is going from copyright law to contract law, which the latter is more restrictive and are a reinforcement of their crap system.
Do they intend to make people even more unaware of the world? What is the REAL reason this is happening? I am stunned by the tiny amount of information that the majority of people seem to have now. This is shocking.
I love this resource. As a Teacher it has solved all the issue I have faced all far as book resources for school.
I really support the internet archive and will pray that the Lord will keep it open!
I love the IA, and I depend on it for my studies, and for my fun reading. I use it every day, and I donate (not as much as I would like, but), one day, when I graduate, I want to donate more, and try to help the IA reach more people like me who just could not afford to buy all the books they need for their studies and research.
But let’s be honest. What the IA did was to bait the publishers by holding a free-for-all, and this court case is exactly what we all knew would happen. I am crushed that this most precious resource is managed by idiots who decided to wave a red flag at a bull, and whose actions were irresponsible, smug and hubristic.
I desperately hope that the IA survives this scary period in its history, and that it can continue to provide free loans on all its books, but I am sure as heck that the current management has to go: they gambled with all our literary heritage and they lost, and now they have the nerve to tell us all to turn up with signs and to give more money.
Yes, I’ll keep giving money, and yes, I’ll pray for a win on appeal. But you guys need to face the IA donors and regular users, and you need to apologize.
Gary, I’m late to this debate; just heard about this case yesterday. Can you help me understand what’s going on? Maybe point me to an article or three?
And how did the IA managers mess this up?
What is that publishers are most concerned with?
(and to say they are just greedy money grubbers ain’t covering the whole field. Just ask authors who might not get their money because of ‘free’ usage. An example of this is the impact of ‘free’ music access; such has destroyed the music industry as artists aren’t getting what they deserve for their production. I have a musician nephew who could write you a book…)
Thanks for the help?
Respectfully
I tend to agree with Gary, but I think we should temper things a bit. The IA decided, during COVID, to modify their lending practices according to what I would term ‘fair intent’. And, in turn, the publishers came after them. The judge, it seems, in the lower court, had his mind made up before listening to the evidence; at least this is my reading of things.
So in the end, putting the judgement aside, which is just an opinion anyway, IA and the publishers will have to find a way to coexist with one another. If that means IA adopting a subscription model, I’m all for it, and I think we should all be prepared to pay for for what we read on IA, if we really support what they are doing …
“Don’t Delete Our Books! Rally” is a short phrase that likely refers to a public demonstration or protest against the removal or banning of books from libraries or schools.
I just discovered the ebook lending capability of this website that I had only used for looking at previous versions of web pages within the past couple of weeks! I identified some books I had wanted to read but were out-of-print and not available at libraries where I have access. I am currently only able to borrow them through the one-hour option. Has the ability to borrow PDFs for 14 days been removed already due to this lawsuit loss? I would hope that there could be some kind of arrangement to allow the website to function as it did previously while an appeal is pending.
I hope that after I hit Post Comment here that I won’t get one of those photo montages asking me to click on the ones with motorcycles or something like that. Well, here goes.
My understanding is, it depends on how many physical copies they have.
* if they only have one copy, we can only borrow for one hour
* if they have multiple copies, we can borrow for 14 days
I’ve read hundreds of books on IA, none of which I would have bought (most were out of print anyway) so the book industry will be hurting scholarship and not making a big profit out of shutting IA down.
Let us face the fact. Internet Archive has already been running all these years. Besides IA, there were several shadow libraries which had been working continuously to distribute the copyrighted books for free around the world. But contemporary to all this, these giant publishers still rose to prominence. So that would mean they aren’t really facing a serious threat from working of IA. They only want to establish monopoly on the flow of information and literary material.
Will they be able to keep the Wayback Machine?
The Internet Archive is the biggest library of books I have ever seen. We use it for about a thousand things! No doubt the Internet Archive helps us SO MUCH in our
homeschool, from books to videos, education and entertainment. If the NWO is going to shut it down I’ll grab a flippen laser gun and blast it’s eye out!!!
The more unaware you are, the more they can control and present to you what they want to present to you. You will continue to see what they want you to see, and know what they want you to know. This is not new in this world. Since the time of the Bible, man has removed and added to his liking. They have dictated what we read and “what is best for us”! They have destroyed books and documents before, and will continue as long as we keep reading and re-checking all the things that have been taught to us. The more we become aware, the more they have to limit the knowledge. These are facts. They’ve burned books before, and they will stop at nothing to keep you unaware!
Not sure how I feel about this. The IA is a valuable web archival project, holding useful backups of websites that have since long disappeared. It’s extremely useful when looking for legacy information on software, hardware, or tools.
However, book lending, I don’t know. It’s not like the books are not available in public libraries in physical form for those who can’t buy them. I don’t see the added value of having a digital copy on IA, which is, by the way, alterable by the IA itself (which makes the argument about censorship not very relevant).
Maybe the IA has become over broad over the last few years? The core mission was great, but do we really need a collection of everything digital under the sun, even things that are still protected by copyright and not even in the gray “abandonware/abandonright” zone?
Have you read/understood HOW the IA virtually “lends” books the same way libraries do it in the physical world? Only lending one copy at a time for every physical book they own? How is that any different than how it’s done in the physical world? It just saves a person from having to physically go to a library, and avoids the problem (or at least delay) of local libraries not carrying the book, or it’s already checked out locally, etc (not to mention all the older/poor/sick/isolated/etc ppl who have difficulty physically going to a library). It’s no different.
Perhaps if publishers were allowed to monitor the traffic levels of such “lending”, and if it becomes an issue related to volume of actual sales, THEN provide protocol for temporary restrictions upon just those particular titles/etc., and take it/evolve it from there… ?
Perhaps my understanding is flawed… but why can’t IA just find servers and hosting outside the United States?
Totalitarianism has arrived in the US. This is a locked down police state we live in.
All these legal dollars would be better spent moving to some place beyond Uncle Sam’s reach — Iran, China, Russia… ?
Perhaps as a last resort, yes.
But operating “in plain sight” helps avoid the (potentially perceived) “stain” of piracy.
Not to mention the Principle of it all (“Knowledge For All”, etc)…
… and ISP’s/etc are increasingly (being forced to) blocking off-shore piracy sites/servers/etc… In fact recent events along that line could very soon make it far more difficult to find ANY pirated stuff… (scary, for us Exceptionally Poor folks)
Anybody going to San Francisco?
Save the books Save the culture!
Hello. Firstly, those who would defend the legal destruction of the Archive don’t seem to understand how censorship works. It is similar to as described by the book “Night,” Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece about World War 2. First (as they are doing now in any number of countries), they come for “books with too much trans” stuff and eradicate them from all public libraries in the state (and later on, who knows, maybe force the big Digital seller websites to not sell them ever again in the province?). Then they come for they come for “books with too much gender” stuff and eradicate them from all public libraries in the territory. Then they come for they come for “books with too much women’s health care information” stuff and eradicate them from all public libraries in the canton. Are you seeing the pattern? And to our friends in Canada, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal through the horizon eastward to Germany… Please type in the internet each month about the progress of the book banning within the United States STATE BY STATE! Do not just type in “books banned in U.S.A or books banned in America.” The real fight is happening on the state level. This can and, perhaps sadly, will happen in all countries in Europe! They will start by saying a family-values region of France (or Germany, etc.) doesn’t want this particular book in their library anymore. Then they try to take the book ban national! Thank you to all across the world that have either enjoyed (or despised) reading this. Have an opinion and your day will become a happy day! This argument should be about a working (capitalist?) market-place-of-ideas where competition happens like it used to in Monopoly, invented in 1935. But does anyone out there remember the one day a certain person (or people) came to your house and played Monopoly in a more aggressive manner? Perhaps making trades with their friends leaving you out in what seemed unfair? This is what is happening! The (mostly men) in power noticed trans issues, gender issues, and women’s health issues were becoming more and more accepted by men! This is why they had to launch an attack on INFORMATION. The men were doing their job (readin’ books and stuff, yah know?), which took all the support beams out from underneath their infrastructure. Ever so often (you can type it in if you want on internet), a terrible disaster happens (elevated train transport, a building with foundational cracks due to lack of water disposal, etc.) that has the potential to destroy life, limb, and property. THE WHOLE FOUNDATION CRUMBLED! The men in charge have noticed too many men were becoming too smart. They are now terrified and pressing all the panic buttons to hold up the fraudulent infrastructure they have built up during the last 35 years. Don’t let them. If you have read this far, support Internet Archive by immediately leaving a 50 American Dollars quantity donation to INTERNET ARCHIVE DOT COM! Do not donate to anyone else for the time being. Put more priority into donating to Internet Archive than any other organization. I feel bad for other causes and they are of great concern, but this is Priority Number One. CENSORED INFORMATION means the climate will be further destroyed… it means endangered animals will become extinct… it means abused animals will become more homely and decimated… it means more homelessness… and it means concentration of more wealth that benefits hospitals; insurance companies; political parties; and shadow-corporations-that-exist only to hide money. Please do your job now. No back talk, soldier!
Sadly I don’t have the money to donate at the moment, but I strongly encourage anyone who has the expendable cash to donate, IA means a lot to us all and the thought of this pool of history going away while fascism is on the rise is VERY scary!
Why are so many folks seemingly giving up here? I don’t see any final event on free books going away on the Internet Archive. At least not yet anyway. I’ve read hundreds if not thousands of digital books over the years. I really don’t mind the new 1-hour option. It’s fine. The thing that will hurt (at least for me) if indeed IA’s lending options go away is that my girlfriend has special needs and can’t read words, sadly only able to listen to audiobooks. An option that many publishers charge ridiculous amounts for. For that free option alone IA is invaluable. Beyond that. I can tell you this. If indeed IA loses its lending options, then there will always be ways to get free books on the web. Always. Don’t publishers see that such an event will only push free books underground? I have literally downloaded 1000s of free books and keep them on file in my own digital library. Why? Because lending options come and go on certain books and certain sites. IA is really the last (commercial-free) place on the web that keeps me in the digital world. I think the publishers are doing themselves a huge injustice. Half the reason I buy physical copies of books is that I have found them digitally on IA. I personally see a huge rebellion in the making especially by the younger so-called Z Generation who are well on their way to outright rebellion against corporate America. Hang in there, Internet Archive! I love you. Thank you for standing up for free books!
i’d suggest she contact info@archive.org about qualifying for the print disability program which will grant her more access.