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Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

archiveteam.org

21–30 of 230 posts

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#21

I hadn't heard of Archiveteam before, but the fact that HN brings their site down doesn't make me too confident in their backing up skills :)

HN has been bringing down a few sites that were unprepared. True, it's possible to harden your page for unexpected traffic spikes, but that's always work and maybe you just decide it's not worth the effort and invest the time elsewhere. (whether that's a good decision is up for debate)

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#22
post #9
post #4

Hmm, I've been playing with IPFS lately, and just had an idea: Since IPFS is perfect for archival, Archiveteam could put their files on IPFS, and users could help out by pinning stuff on their local nodes. For example, I could ask their website to give me a 10 GB list of files to pin (if I wanted to "donate" 10 GB to them), and I'd keep them available. The only problem is that I don't know whether IPFS has any way to…

ArchiveTeam is putting the files in the Internet Archive archives. While IPFS is great, I'm not sure I agree it's good for archival because it depends on the availability of the IPFS network. The Internet Archive does work to make sure that there are sufficent backups to mean they can recreate their archive.

As long as there is a single party interested in content hosted on IPFS, the "IPFS Network" will persist.

It would absolutely be the best move for IPFS to be used in this case - maybe something like the AkashaApp guys, albeit for audio-media.

Edit: The Akasha App for those who aren't yet familiar with it - https://akasha.world - brings together IPFS and Ethereum to make a truly distributed peer network for persistent content.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#23
post #13

I'm interested in people's opinions on the legality of this. They mention "Archive Team considers the SoundCloud service in danger and, as it hosts a lot of original content, finds it important to prepare to save it selectively (a full grab would be too big and would raise concerns of mass copyright infringement).", but how is downloading any portion of artist's music not copyright infringement? I've written my own S…

IIRC they said "selective backup"

To me that means "stuff that's most likely fine to preserve and most likely isn't found on other places".

Also according to Sound Cloud's ToS by using them you are granting all users rights to "to use, copy, listen to offline, repost, transmit or otherwise distribute" your content. So if Archive Team downloads everything they can (that does not in itself violate copyright (i.e. they are not Metallica songs)) there should be no copyright issues.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#24

The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that Archiveteam are actually detrimental (in the long run) to the well-being of the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work they do, and without them lots of content would simply disappear. But solving this problem should be at the core of the protocol itself (Xanadu, anyone?[1]), not depending on the resources and goodwill of a single team. Just like…

I downvoted this. Maybe we will get to this point one day, but in the meantime I think we should all appreciate the amount of conservation work they do for the future generations. Exactly how NGOs help feed people hoping that one day the system will be fixed.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#26

The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that Archiveteam are actually detrimental (in the long run) to the well-being of the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work they do, and without them lots of content would simply disappear. But solving this problem should be at the core of the protocol itself (Xanadu, anyone?[1]), not depending on the resources and goodwill of a single team. Just like…

Apt username. Yes, you're wrong. See, we don't have Xanadu and we don't have an in-protocol solution so somebody needs to do the dirty work here and AT stepped up and does an absolutely incredible job.

So as long as there's a patch that somehow works we have at least a solution. If that patch wouldn't be there we'd have nothing.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#27

The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that Archiveteam are actually detrimental (in the long run) to the well-being of the Internet. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work they do, and without them lots of content would simply disappear. But solving this problem should be at the core of the protocol itself (Xanadu, anyone?[1]), not depending on the resources and goodwill of a single team. Just like…

The perfect solution is the enemy of the good.

There is no perfect solution in sight and this a good one until a better one comes along.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#28

Archiveteam seems like a really cool project, what I was wondering (and couldn't find in the FAQ) is who is paying for all the storage? Is it donated by big tech companies?

It was founded by Jason Scott (of textfiles.com) who works for the Internet Archive (which is nonprofit). So while I think the Archive Team is fully community driven project what they backup ends up on Internet Archive.

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#29

I hadn't heard of Archiveteam before, but the fact that HN brings their site down doesn't make me too confident in their backing up skills :)

HN can direct more traffic than you think, and it can do so very quickly. AT's backing up skills are fine, and if you've managed to be on HN for nearly 5 years without hearing about them then that does not make me too confident about your reading skills :)

Re: Archiveteam are backing up SoundCloud

#30
post #13

I'm interested in people's opinions on the legality of this. They mention "Archive Team considers the SoundCloud service in danger and, as it hosts a lot of original content, finds it important to prepare to save it selectively (a full grab would be too big and would raise concerns of mass copyright infringement).", but how is downloading any portion of artist's music not copyright infringement? I've written my own S…

IIRC they said "selective backup" To me that means "stuff that's most likely fine to preserve and most likely isn't found on other places". Also according to Sound Cloud's ToS by using them you are granting all users rights to "to use, copy, listen to offline, repost, transmit or otherwise distribute" your content. So if Archive Team downloads everything they can (that does not in itself violate copyright (i.e. they…

Not quite. The Terms of Use state that uploaders grant users the ability to use, copy, repost, distribute, etc. content specifically "utilizing the features of the Platform from time to time, and within the parameters set by you using the Services".

Which means you're only allowed to redistribute content through the facilities provided by Soundcloud. You're not allowed to simply download music and share it outside of the website.

That said, simply downloading music from Soundcloud isn't copyright infringement. You have to do that anyway to listen to the music. But redistributing it (outside of Soundcloud) is illegal unless the copyright holder has granted permission to do so, or the work is under Public Domain.

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