Another one is close to biting the dust. Sci-Hub is out, Z-Lib got ran off like a dog and now IA is going to remove a host of books because these publishers just can’t stop being money-hungry bastards.

This is why I support piracy. Knowledge should be free. To go after a nonprofit organization that just wants to make digital books and other formats accessible to everyone when majority of uploads can’t be downloaded only borrowed, is just so devious and greedy.

I’m so tired of it. Laws around copyright and intellectual property need to be reformed. I feel so helpless :c

Link to blog post:

https://blog.archive.org/2023/08/17/what-the-hachette-v-internet-archive-decision-means-for-our-library/

  • imgonnatrythis@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is depressing as hell.

    Most people have no idea how much sci-hub has advanced medical and basic scientific discovery.

    We need things like the archive more than ever now too as the the disease of thinking truth is a maleable substrate continues to spread.

  • xspurnx@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I can’t believe these are the times we live in. The services of the Internet Archive are invaluable for scholars and students alike. No library can afford all the printed books/journals or licenses needed for an adequate approach to most topics. And to be honest, shadow libraries are also much needed when publishers lock away vital knowledge (which was often gained through support from public grants).

    This seems just another example of how capitalism will bring about the downfall of our civilization as it hinders the progress of science.

    • Pearlescence@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      I didn’t say it was dead, most of its domains were seized by the US, so they were in fact run off like dogs. I made a post a month or two back mentioning the new domain they have.

  • koper@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    It seems like this order is rather limited and the IA can continue almost all of their work.

    • Pearlescence@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      I hope this is where it stops. Current laws aren’t too favourable towards projects like these and the IA depends heavily on donations so I don’t think they’d be able to withstand multiple drawn out court battles. I’m just waiting to see what gets affected exactly and to what extent.

    • totallynotfbi@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That only helps for shadow libraries whose operators are unknown. The Internet Archive, on the other hand, is a registered non-profit organisation, so how would they be able to hide themselves?

      • AAA@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Just like the OG Pirate Bay. They closed down, and someone else, unknown, took over.

        That’s not unproblematic ofc as the new owner can do whatever they want without the oversight of the non-profit.

        • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          It’d be harder for IA since they have hundreds of PBs of hard drives. You need like a warehouse for it so it’s a lot harder to hop around

        • totallynotfbi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          It’s not so simple, unfortunately. The sheer amount of data they have - 212 PB as of December 2021 - makes it practically impossible for most people to mirror. Unless they physically hand over all 745 server nodes to another operator, there’s no way of someone

          There are some solutions to this - for example Archive-Team has proposed a method of mirroring the Internet Archive using distributed clients, although this method currently only has a fraction of the total dataset. Still, at this point in time, there’s no real solution to resharing IA’s data in the event they go under

      • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachts
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        1 year ago

        how would they be able to hide themselves?

        It’s literally in the name for a .onion website: hidden service

        Tor hides the identity of servers just as much as it does for client users. So as long as the IA hosts in a country where publishers don’t have jurisdiction, I believe they’ll be fine

  • DieterParker@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    I was of the impression that the ia doesn’t delete, but instead puts files in quarantine until copyright runs out. Else they’d have to digitize it again later.

  • people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, for Sci-hub I think it’s just that Elbakyan got tired of maintaining and updating it constantly. That “waiting for court results” part was just an excuse, just because Indian law enforcement is too unequipped to go after pirates doesn’t mean the country magically became lax on IP law. There was no good chance she could’ve won the dismissal plea.

  • riley0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    And it was IA’s increased activity during the pandemic that spurred the current trouble. Brewster Kahle is a saint.

    • Pearlescence@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      That’s what I read as well. You would think they would’ve gotten some leeway since it was done during an event comparable to war and they were following the footsteps of other digital libraries. They had a pretty stellar reputation and system in place for nearly a decade already, so I can only assume that they were simply waiting for an opportunity to target them.

    • Pearlescence@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      Lmao I’m so sorry! I realised afterwards what was happening, but have no idea how to fix it since I’m still fairly new to Lemmy. I hope it didn’t inconvenience you too much!