Internet Archive fans beg publishers to stop emptying the open library.
    • Disaster@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      234·
      6 months ago

      Yeah, kinda funny how it’s OK when there’s a bunch of neoliberal gangsters like larry summers behind it, right?

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1302·
    6 months ago

    You know, this thread really needs a list of of the publishers responsible for this travesty.

    “Publishers Hachette Book Group Inc, HarperCollins Publishers LLC, John Wiley & Sons Inc and Penguin Random House LLC” - According to Reuters

  • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.worldEnglish
    911·
    6 months ago

    Welp, hope they’re backed up somewhere in an uncentralised, segmented, shareable form where people can still access them from the internet.

    • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.worldEnglish
      441·
      6 months ago

      There’s a Minecraft server that has books and articles stored. it’s called The Uncensored Library, (visit.uncensoredlibrary.com), and they have various articles and books that are free to view. The Uncensored Library was created by Reporters Without Borders. If I were the people of the Internet Archive, I’d be talking to the folks in the RSF about porting some of their content to this virtual library.

      • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
        38·
        6 months ago

        It only contains a relatively small collection of banned reporting from various countries, not the whole Internet Archive, and only in the form of in-game books, not anything really usable IRL. It’s neat but basically a promotional project for RWB.

        • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          6 months ago

          Maybe I’m just seeing potential where there isn’t any, but I really think if the people of the Archive could find a way to get their stuff stored in TUL, or perhaps build a Library of their own, the publishers couldn’t go after them then, because to the outside observer, all they see is a buncha dudes playing Minecraft.

          • Jordan117@lemmy.worldEnglish
            10·
            6 months ago

            It’s just not practical – no Minecraft server or map can realistically hold all the books in the Archive, or even just the 500k that were removed. Even if it could, you’d only be able to read them by literally taking your avatar to the book object and reading it in the tiny in-game interface.

            The Minecraft thing is just a gimmick to promote awareness of press freedom and censorship, not a plausible way to deliver books to people. If the IA wanted to “set books free” they’d be better off using torrents or something like Libgen (and even then they’d still be criminally liable for making the files available, even if the publishers couldn’t stop the files from being shared further).

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          IRL. It’s neat but basically a promotional project for RWB.

          you could easily stuff a script to rip the books out and stuff them into usable formats pretty easily, minecraft worlds are just a list of files.

          Though i haven’t verified this, and i’m not going to so.

          • ALifeToRemember@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            I had a look at this map and ifirc the problem is that the Minecraft books have a very small word limit. Only a few hundred words. You cannot even put a full article on a Minecraft book, let alone an actual book.

            It was rather underwhelming to be honest.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      42·
      6 months ago

      We live in a system that monetizes everything, then seeks to restrict access to those things in order to profit.

      Knowledge is just one casualty.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        6 months ago

        Scarcity is money and if there is no scarcity laws will be bought to to artificially create said scarcity.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
    80·
    6 months ago

    There are a lot of books that are out of print, especially reference books. And if you look for them on Amazon or eBay, they’ve been snapped up by scalpers who are reselling them for obscene profit.

    Either make the books available for sale or quit complaining about “copyright infringement.” But whatever you do, quit hoarding knowledge like a dragon sitting on a pile of gold.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      551·
      6 months ago

      Exactly. Copyright should be nullified if there’s no longer first party sales.

      We should also go back to the original copyright duration: 14 years with an optional, one-time extension for an additional 14 years.

      • aliteral@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        If something does not sell anymore, automatically should go public domain or open source. Games, for example.

  • Feliskatos 🐱@lemmy.worldEnglish
    361·
    6 months ago

    I wish the cost of internet access decreased to match decreased available content. Internet shrinkinflation?

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      6 months ago

      With pacbell’s interwebs, you get 30 email addresses, and a free subscription to Yahoo’s front page!!! Hurry!

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    6 months ago

    Hopefully they have an offline backup in storage somewhere for when the current shitshow ends

    • Colonel Panic@lemm.eeEnglish
      17·
      6 months ago

      (Unplugs external drive)

      “I deleted them.”

      “You deleted all of them?”

      “Yep, not on the website anymore. See.”

      “Ok… Good… But I’m watching you.”

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.worldEnglish
      91·
      6 months ago

      Well they have no reason to delete them as they “own” the copy they have. They just need to take them offline until they get through the appeal or lose and have to keep them on a p2p torrent aspect instead of through their site. That sucks

  • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    302·
    6 months ago

    That’s good. The internet is for advertiser’s and businesses. Its not for archives of information

    • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Ditto. I have everything from Apache web server guides to Apache helicopter service manuals.

  • T156@lemmy.worldEnglish
    26·
    6 months ago

    The internet archive plans to appeal the ruling, so the fight is hardly over at this juncture.

    Would be interesting to see where it goes.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      261·
      6 months ago

      No. That would involve the general public maintaining a consistent position.

      I want knowledge to be free. That means free. That means governments, businesses, NGOs, your local church sewing circle, AIs/LLMs, refugees living in tents, convicts, children, and any other humans or human organizations or anything humans built.

      I am willing to accept a LIMITED duration copyright and patent and private science publication system if it could be reformed such that it the brains behind it were paid and couldn’t legally sign away their compensation. Given that we as a society aren’t willing to build this the best course of action is to actively work to break copyright

    • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Wouldn’t the attacks on openai be the same as these ones. Like if I was large media company wouldn’t I want my media to be vilifying AI because its the same principal and mechanism as training AI. They can kill two birds

  • cley_faye@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    6 months ago

    Great, another victory of people keeping IP in closed box away from the public at the small cost of culture disappearing.

  • yildolw@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1110·
    6 months ago

    The Internet Archive picked a dumb fight that it couldn’t win. I want to donate money to the Wayback Machine, but I can’t because they’ll spend it appealing this stupid thing.