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Comment on Elon Musk Cuts Funding for Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a fantastic resource, but to say they take a lackadaisical approach to copyright/IP law is putting it lightly. There is SO much pirated content on there that it’s a wonder they’ve managed to last as long as they have being US-based.

Whether you agree with the spirit of the laws or not, there’s no arguing that they’ve long been on a collision course with major US copyright holders and I doubt they can survive without a massive effort to relocate somewhere out of reach.

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blank_the_blank@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Eventually having any money in your wallet at all will be at a collision course with US copyright holders, almost as if copyright is an unsustainable tool of neocolonialism that has no place in a post scarcity world.

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TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I mean it was a precarious case that was on the verge of being acceptable to most people, but legally was clearly not. Scanning books and providing a single digital copy was legally grey, but everyone looked the other way. Providing extra copies during a pandemic was kind, but allowing it to go to court and not settling (and then doubling down with appeals, all of which has to be funded by donations that could have been spent elsewhere) ended up with a judge ruling that no one can scan books and publish a single copy without an explicit license from the publisher. So that grey area is now black and white.

I can’t help but resent them for this, given that the main part of the business - the actual Internet Archive - is so important and they’ve put its survial at risk with their side hussle. Some of the blame (perhaps even a majority?) should also go to the lawyers that represented IA.

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