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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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
I used to work there a lifetime ago and it was actually my job to respond to takedown requests. There’s this thing called ‘robots.txt’ that allows websites to tell others (search engines and such) what content should be off limits. For example, in the robots.txt file you would have a line that says “disallow /cgi” and the search engines would skip over the stuff in the /cgi directory. And, yes, to the others that mention DMCA takedown requests, yes the archive honors those, but that is a last resort.
I used to work there a lifetime ago and it was actually my job to respond to takedown requests. There’s this thing called ‘robots.txt’ that allows websites to tell others (search engines and such) what content should be off limits. For example, in the robots.txt file you would have a line that says “disallow /cgi” and the search engines would skip over the stuff in the /cgi directory. And, yes, to the others that mention DMCA takedown requests, yes the archive honors those, but that is a last resort.
I used to work there a lifetime ago and it was actually my job to respond to takedown requests. There’s this thing called ‘robots.txt’ that allows websites to tell others (search engines and such) what content should be off limits. For example, in the robots.txt file you would have a line that says “disallow /cgi” and the search engines would skip over the stuff in the /cgi directory. And, yes, to the others that mention DMCA takedown requests, yes the archive honors those, but that is a last resort.
All the material on archive.org is under the same copyright protection as if it was still in its original location. You don’t get any special license and you can’t just take and use stuff without violating the original terms.
Material falls under several broad categories:
Public domain: The copyrights have elapsed “naturally” or were released by their holders. A large amount of historical literature falls under this category. Free for any use.
Abandonware: The material is still under copyright, but the holders do not practically exist. A lot of old computer games fall under this category, as the companies that owned them have been sold, split, and dissolved. You are very unlikely to get in trouble for reuse, and morally it’s probably OK too.
Licensed: The copyright holders specifically allow archive.org to publish the material. They could have uploaded it themselves or reached out for specific archival projects. Personal use and research are probably fine, but you won’t be protected if you start reselling it or something.
Unlicensed: All other material still under copyright. If the holders want they can issue takedown notices and have it removed. For the most part they either don’t care, or see the common value in archival. Most of the web archive falls under this category. As archive.org makes no profit and cooperates with requests they are fine to carry on. You, however, would not be.
Thank you for all the comments. I’m going to stick to the safe side and not use it for any uni projects incase any of footage I was looking at is just archived, copyrighted material. We don’t fall under DMCA laws either (in the UK) so wouldn’t be too sure where I stand with any of that either. But still pretty interesting. Thank u 🙏🏼
Thank you for all the comments. I’m going to stick to the safe side and not use it for any uni projects incase any of footage I was looking at is just archived, copyrighted material. We don’t fall under DMCA laws either (in the UK) so wouldn’t be too sure where I stand with any of that either. But still pretty interesting. Thank u 🙏🏼
All the material on archive.org is under the same copyright protection as if it was still in its original location. You don’t get any special license and you can’t just take and use stuff without violating the original terms.
Material falls under several broad categories:
Public domain: The copyrights have elapsed “naturally” or were released by their holders. A large amount of historical literature falls under this category. Free for any use.
Abandonware: The material is still under copyright, but the holders do not practically exist. A lot of old computer games fall under this category, as the companies that owned them have been sold, split, and dissolved. You are very unlikely to get in trouble for reuse, and morally it’s probably OK too.
Licensed: The copyright holders specifically allow archive.org to publish the material. They could have uploaded it themselves or reached out for specific archival projects. Personal use and research are probably fine, but you won’t be protected if you start reselling it or something.
Unlicensed: All other material still under copyright. If the holders want they can issue takedown notices and have it removed. For the most part they either don’t care, or see the common value in archival. Most of the web archive falls under this category. As archive.org makes no profit and cooperates with requests they are fine to carry on. You, however, would not be.
All the material on archive.org is under the same copyright protection as if it was still in its original location. You don’t get any special license and you can’t just take and use stuff without violating the original terms.
Material falls under several broad categories:
Public domain: The copyrights have elapsed “naturally” or were released by their holders. A large amount of historical literature falls under this category. Free for any use.
Abandonware: The material is still under copyright, but the holders do not practically exist. A lot of old computer games fall under this category, as the companies that owned them have been sold, split, and dissolved. You are very unlikely to get in trouble for reuse, and morally it’s probably OK too.
Licensed: The copyright holders specifically allow archive.org to publish the material. They could have uploaded it themselves or reached out for specific archival projects. Personal use and research are probably fine, but you won’t be protected if you start reselling it or something.
Unlicensed: All other material still under copyright. If the holders want they can issue takedown notices and have it removed. For the most part they either don’t care, or see the common value in archival. Most of the web archive falls under this category. As archive.org makes no profit and cooperates with requests they are fine to carry on. You, however, would not be.
Thank you for all the comments. I’m going to stick to the safe side and not use it for any uni projects incase any of footage I was looking at is just archived, copyrighted material. We don’t fall under DMCA laws either (in the UK) so wouldn’t be too sure where I stand with any of that either. But still pretty interesting. Thank u 🙏🏼
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