Is it actually copyright free? How can such a large library of downloadable content come without any issues? Do they contact all the owners of the footage/work and they release it to them? Am I able to then use any of it in my own projects?
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Mostly they focus on legitimate archival that doesn’t draw any copyright claims, such as abandoned content. But they absolutely do [respect legitimate DMCA takedown requests](https://help.archive.org/help/i-cant-find-my-items/).
One thing that’s special about them is that [they received an exemption for the DMCA anti-circumvention clause](https://archive.org/about/dmca.php). This allows them to host materials with copy protection removed.
Recently they’ve come under fire because of [their digital lending library](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/26/1166101459/internet-archive-lawsuit-books-library-publishers).
So, you know how you have a toy box where you keep all your favorite toys? Well, archive.org is kind of like a really, really big toy box, but instead of toys, it keeps lots of old websites, videos, music, and other things that people have made over the years.
Now, just like how you might ask your friends if you can borrow their toys to play with, the people who run archive.org ask if they can borrow all these old things and keep them safe in their toy box. Sometimes, the people who made these things say “yes,” and then they give archive.org permission to keep their stuff in the toy box for everyone to see and use. And sometimes, the people who made these things are not around anymore, so nobody knows who to ask for permission. In that case, archive.org just keeps the thing in the toy box and lets people look at it, but they try really hard to make sure they’re not doing anything wrong.
Now, sometimes when people make things like videos or music, they say that nobody is allowed to use their stuff without asking first. That’s called “copyright.” Archive.org is very careful to follow the copyright rules, and they only keep things in the toy box that the people who made them said were okay to use. So, if you want to use something from archive.org in your own project, you should make sure that it says you’re allowed to do that first.
Overall, archive.org is a really cool toy box that lets people see and use all sorts of interesting things that people made a long time ago.
*Edit: Dang! Sorry, I didn’t realize this was ELIF. This explanation is probably more Explain it Like I’m Ten. Apologies!*
An archivist’s job is to preserve objects and information that has historical obvious value or potentially undiscovered historical value.
This is seen as a good to society and perpetuates into the future. That is, if something is copyrighted *today* that is a legal protection of someone’s rights to their intellectual property.
However, at some point in the future intellectual property rights expire, depending on the media. After all, if you’re dead, it doesn’t make sense any more to protect your right to make money off your own creative efforts.
At that point, your work’s primary value is as an historical artifact that should be preserved so that we do not forget our past.
The best time to preserve cultural artifacts is when they still have their full relevance. The people alive at the time a cultural item is produced are the ones best equipped to explain its full contextual significance. As those people age and die, a thing’s contextual meaning can fade out and disappear completely.
Because we don’t want parts of the Internet to disappear or for us to lose their meaning, Archive.org is allowed to create their live ongoing snapshot of this public place while today, while they still have value and contextual meaning. Another reason for this is that as things lose their *monetary* value over time they are often discarded by the people who were originally exploiting them for gain. So these items aren’t just permanently deleted and thus lost and forgotten, copies are archived today before they can lose all their value.
Archive.org allows people to upload basically anything they want. I assume they take down anything that they get DMCA requests for, but there is a ton of stuff on there that is absolutely protected by copyright.
*Edit: Dang! Sorry, I didn’t realize this was ELIF. This explanation is probably more Explain it Like I’m Ten. Apologies!*
An archivist’s job is to preserve objects and information that has historical obvious value or potentially undiscovered historical value.
This is seen as a good to society and perpetuates into the future. That is, if something is copyrighted *today* that is a legal protection of someone’s rights to their intellectual property.
However, at some point in the future intellectual property rights expire, depending on the media. After all, if you’re dead, it doesn’t make sense any more to protect your right to make money off your own creative efforts.
At that point, your work’s primary value is as an historical artifact that should be preserved so that we do not forget our past.
The best time to preserve cultural artifacts is when they still have their full relevance. The people alive at the time a cultural item is produced are the ones best equipped to explain its full contextual significance. As those people age and die, a thing’s contextual meaning can fade out and disappear completely.
Because we don’t want parts of the Internet to disappear or for us to lose their meaning, Archive.org is allowed to create their live ongoing snapshot of this public place while today, while they still have value and contextual meaning. Another reason for this is that as things lose their *monetary* value over time they are often discarded by the people who were originally exploiting them for gain. So these items aren’t just permanently deleted and thus lost and forgotten, copies are archived today before they can lose all their value.
*Edit: Dang! Sorry, I didn’t realize this was ELIF. This explanation is probably more Explain it Like I’m Ten. Apologies!*
An archivist’s job is to preserve objects and information that has historical obvious value or potentially undiscovered historical value.
This is seen as a good to society and perpetuates into the future. That is, if something is copyrighted *today* that is a legal protection of someone’s rights to their intellectual property.
However, at some point in the future intellectual property rights expire, depending on the media. After all, if you’re dead, it doesn’t make sense any more to protect your right to make money off your own creative efforts.
At that point, your work’s primary value is as an historical artifact that should be preserved so that we do not forget our past.
The best time to preserve cultural artifacts is when they still have their full relevance. The people alive at the time a cultural item is produced are the ones best equipped to explain its full contextual significance. As those people age and die, a thing’s contextual meaning can fade out and disappear completely.
Because we don’t want parts of the Internet to disappear or for us to lose their meaning, Archive.org is allowed to create their live ongoing snapshot of this public place while today, while they still have value and contextual meaning. Another reason for this is that as things lose their *monetary* value over time they are often discarded by the people who were originally exploiting them for gain. So these items aren’t just permanently deleted and thus lost and forgotten, copies are archived today before they can lose all their value.
Archive.org allows people to upload basically anything they want. I assume they take down anything that they get DMCA requests for, but there is a ton of stuff on there that is absolutely protected by copyright.
Archive.org allows people to upload basically anything they want. I assume they take down anything that they get DMCA requests for, but there is a ton of stuff on there that is absolutely protected by copyright.
Archive.org uses webcrawlers to make archival copies of websites and their content. ‘Archival’ means ‘for the purpose of permanent long term preservation, description, and access’. Libraries and archives have the right to collect copyrighted work as well as create archival copies of the work. That doesn’t mean they can make it available to the public automatically. The Internet Archive abides by copyright guidelines as they apply to the content in their collection. All digitized books for example, are only available if they are in the public domain (ie. no longer under copyright).
However, unlike brick and mortar libraries, the Internet Archive wants to lend digitized versions of copyrighted works. This isn’t a new concept – it’s called ‘Controlled Digital Lending’ and the idea is that libraries are adapting to how media is produced in the 21st century. Libraries and archives have been developing this framework for a while now. It’s the next logical step in providing access to information as a public service.
So any archive can store material. They can also alter the format (ie. digitize) of things they have purchased with the goal of long term preservation. They can’t freely distribute copies though. They can still only loan only the number of copies they purchased. They do not need approval from the copyright holders to do this. It’s protected by law. This is called ‘Fair Use’ and is intended to be a guideline for how libraries and archives can legally operate. But Hachette v. Internet Archive will determine whether or not to include CDL (controlled digital lending) as a legitimate extension of Fair Use
Archive.org uses webcrawlers to make archival copies of websites and their content. ‘Archival’ means ‘for the purpose of permanent long term preservation, description, and access’. Libraries and archives have the right to collect copyrighted work as well as create archival copies of the work. That doesn’t mean they can make it available to the public automatically. The Internet Archive abides by copyright guidelines as they apply to the content in their collection. All digitized books for example, are only available if they are in the public domain (ie. no longer under copyright).
However, unlike brick and mortar libraries, the Internet Archive wants to lend digitized versions of copyrighted works. This isn’t a new concept – it’s called ‘Controlled Digital Lending’ and the idea is that libraries are adapting to how media is produced in the 21st century. Libraries and archives have been developing this framework for a while now. It’s the next logical step in providing access to information as a public service.
So any archive can store material. They can also alter the format (ie. digitize) of things they have purchased with the goal of long term preservation. They can’t freely distribute copies though. They can still only loan only the number of copies they purchased. They do not need approval from the copyright holders to do this. It’s protected by law. This is called ‘Fair Use’ and is intended to be a guideline for how libraries and archives can legally operate. But Hachette v. Internet Archive will determine whether or not to include CDL (controlled digital lending) as a legitimate extension of Fair Use
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