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Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

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Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#401

Post by healsdata »

HellsMaddy wrote: post #61

I'm surprised and disappointed that the IA ever thought this would go over well, though I do respect the reasons for which they took these actions. Circumstances around the COVID-19 lockdowns have been very unusual. If you consider the hundreds of millions (+?) of books in libraries around the world that were temporarily inaccessible to people, including children and students, I feel the IA's actions were somewhat ju…

There are plenty of public domain and Creative Commons books that could have sufficed for folks looking to read and learn. Someone wanting to read "The Trials of Apollo" instead of "Robinson Crusoe" does not equal an emergency.

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#402

Post by lordlimecat »

shervinafshar wrote: post #382
lordlimecat wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>following bureaucratic channels ...would have been slow and hence counterproductive. The courts will understand this to effectively be "we are a law unto ourselves". Those determinations are properly made by the mayor, governor, president, or legislative body-- not some random .org.

"random .org"? IA? That concludes our fun conversation from my point of view. We'll just have to wait and see.

Yes, the IA has no special legal, regulatory, or advisory rights that i am aware of, which makes it in the eyes of the court just another .org.

Whatever special role you or I think it plays in the world has zero bearing on the outcome of this case.

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#404

Post by tekknik »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #390
tekknik wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually didn’t mean the outlaw business thing as inflammatory. I challenge you to find a way to make this work when some can still make profit. I’m aware what you do on your Github, I looked it up. Interestingly I have many more public/oss repos than you. You have failed to address the point and gave one example of a company based around 3d printers. I challenge you to think about this across all industries and ho…

You’ve misunderstood my point. Companies in my opinion should not stop others from reproducing their work. This should not be something people can do any more than you can stop your neighbor from leaving their house. I gave you a perfectly fine example of a company that works even in the current climate without needing such restrictions on competition. I believe it would work the same with washing machines and automo…

Insulin is also a natural chemical made by our bodies. The cure for cancer is not. How much people power has gone into looking for its cure? How is this funded? Either by taxes or revenue. If you decrease that then clearly you cannot perform the research. And the reason why all these companies are chasing that cure is the massive payout at the end.

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#406

Post by prvc »

mattl wrote: post #293
mcguire wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scanning and providing access to digital copies of books was the dumb move---without that, they would not have attracted the enmity of publishers. The fastest and most successful way to avoid the destruction of an organization is always to concede to the wishes of its enemies. Preemptively, if possible.

Have you seen the ebooks they’re lending out? They’re a DRM encumbered pile of JPEGs. The ebooks available at a local library via OverDrive are Kindle ebooks with all the searching and bookmarking enabled.

Maybe even jpeg2000 in some cases. Also long render times on computers; impossible to read on e-readers.

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#407

Post by shervinafshar »

lordlimecat wrote: post #402
shervinafshar wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"random .org"? IA? That concludes our fun conversation from my point of view. We'll just have to wait and see.

Yes, the IA has no special legal, regulatory, or advisory rights that i am aware of, which makes it in the eyes of the court just another .org. Whatever special role you or I think it plays in the world has zero bearing on the outcome of this case.

You made your point very clear. Regretfully, I can not agree with your fervent enthusiasm for the law of the land in this case that this is an obvious and open-and-shut case of illegal conduct that one might very much want it to appear. This is based on the assessments of experts such as the Copyright Office on the case and the nuances reflected in it.

As I said, we'll have to wait and see. I do look forward to it. In the mean time these are the tiny actions I'll be taking in support of IA (1) I double my donations to the IA and match donations of any friends and acquaintances, (2) the four conglomerate publishers are boycotted until further notice.

And remember, the Internet always finds a way, if its short history has taught us anything.

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#408

Post by selimthegrim »

jariel wrote: post #79
kalium-xyz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The archived internet is far larger in text alone than everything published before the information age.

" far larger " ... 'size' is really not that important. What matters is the content, it's uniqueness and relative importance. Libraries, even books (let alone literacy) during antiquity were rare and generally unique, remember, this is before the printed press. The Library at Alexandria was a 'first-order' source of knowledge and wisdom, a place where 'intellectual luminaries' (i.e. big rabbis of the day) would have…

HathiTrust is more along the lines of what you are getting at

Re: Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site

#409

Post by [deleted] »

darkarmani wrote: post #395
csharptwdec19 wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would it actually be fine to stream an OTA channel? I don't actually know. I'm not sure it would be a business model for anyone but would that be considered a public performance? The answer is no, and that's why Aereo lost their case. It is important to note that Aereo lost their case under a specific carve-out for broadcast transmission. Back in the 70s there were a few cases around CATV operators doing the exact…

> This is also why the Slingbox back in the day survived legal challenges (if there even were any.) The Customer had to have their own physical hardware at the location receiving the signals. So could areo sell the physical hardware to the customer and then buy it back at the end of the billing cycle?

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