My take on this is that in desperation to become a real library despite Kahle's radical hatred of content creators, Kahle will end up dragging the legislative narrative in a direction that takes down real libraries with him. He will almost certainly broadcast his status as a federal depository library as part of his defenses in his numerous lawsuits.

One selfish man unwilling to recognize he is doing more harm than good.

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bahmboo 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

"radical hatred of content creators" is a very harsh and specific allegation. I wasn't aware that Kahle was considered such a bad actor. I did some googling and wikipedia-ing and can't see much that supports that claim. I am very open minded to the nuances of IP rights vs information-wants-to-be-free so I'd love to hear more details about your position particularly as it relates to the federal depository designation.

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badlibrarian 4 days ago | parent [-]

Making every book on the site available for unlimited download, not just rare things but contemporary best sellers, did huge reputational damage. Following it up by claiming he was saving scratchy old 78 RPM records, but in the process also making LPs from Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix available, continued the trend.

Tweeting out promotional links to the pages with those materials, while asking for donations on the top of the page? Well, I don't know if that's contempt for artists or just lack of common sense. But when they ask you to take down the material and you refuse...

The depository thing is a distraction. And they do have a habit of sensationalizing things in blog posts. So I understand where that commenter is coming from. Internet Archive is under attack from many sides but much of it is self-inflicted.

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mdp2021 4 days ago | parent [-]

Libraries make «contemporary best sellers» and «LPs from Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix» freely available. You call it «reputational damage», others may call it "advancing demands over rights", "stirring a stagnating reality in view of effective progress" (with reference to dematerialization), "pushing a debate" (about where we want to go societally".

It is unwise to push these latter points with the outmost care without having awakened the masses and clarified your stances to decisors - it is unwise to be "right" in front of the immature. But the reputation damage remains about wisdom, not about pride.

	▲	badlibrarian 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Physical libraries act under a different set of rules and those were already made well known to Brewster as part of the Hachette lawsuit. For music, the Music Modernization Act set up a statutory process for making things available, even downloadable. Brewster and others celebrated the measure in blog posts and speaking gigs. Then didn't follow the process, didn't honor polite requests to stop, then got sued for $700 million. Previously they did some seriously stupid things in their implementation of Controlled Digital Lending, and got the whole concept killed. Not even a debate, just destroyed on summary judgement without even a trial. This set the future many of us want back decades, and ruined a lot of proper efforts that were run much better than the well-intentioned but undermanaged Internet Archive. Combined with them giving the finger to the fairly innovative and progressive music act, this caused damage not only to reputations, but also the culture. Regarding copyright basics, we're likely to agree on many positions, including some radical ones. But Internet Archive cannot be a long-term archive, an activist organization, and an open library. There are different laws, risk profiles, and financial/management requirements for each. And you can't beg people for donations to "save the internet" then set it all on fire to save a bunch of old records that already existed at the Library of Congress. Or act surprised that just because you scan them, it doesn't mean you can then make them available for unlimited download without permission. Again, archives behave differently from libraries. Although it's annoying to tech people, there are good reasons for it. Brewster likes his honorary library status and degree but he and the site violate the majority of the librarian code of ethics. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics

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toomuchtodo 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

They were already recognized by the state of California as a library, and have received federal funds for infrastructure under that designation. They’ve also been accepted into consortiums made up of other libraries in the US. Whether you believe they’re a library is immaterial.

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badlibrarian 4 days ago | parent [-]

A federal Judge also ruled that "IA does not perform the traditional functions of a library."

https://publishers.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024.09.04...

Brewster has a friend in a state senator and he's trying to do what he can to preserve his section 108 privileges. He's removed over a million items in the past year after being repeatedly sued for copyright infringement, and leaked millions of private communications with patrons including passports and driver licenses. That's the undercurrent here.

Egos aside, the goal isn't to be a library: it's providing access to knowledge. But when your site is on the blocklist at public library terminals because you keep getting flagged for copyright violations and child pornography, maybe you're not on the path.

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mdp2021 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Unclear expression, since the goal of a library is «providing access to knowledge». Maybe the point is about the future of those services.

	▲	badlibrarian 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		archive.org: "Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge." As the name implies, Internet Archive started as an archive. Which is very different from a library. Running an archive is not particularly fun, and it is very expensive, and you cannot monetize it without having rights to the things you're archiving. They've never offered research services or grants, and yet the monthly bill and tech debt just keeps growing. Last year's hacks showed the state of things, and they leaked patron information and even passports and drivers licenses. They tried to be a library but didn't follow the law. Hell, they even tried to be a bank at one point and got spanked hard by the feds there, too. https://ncua.gov/newsroom/press-release/2016/internet-archiv... With the $700 million lawsuit over old records it became clear that the whole thing is little more than a catch all for things that Brewster Kahle finds interesting. He's got money and seems like a kind guy. But it's not a well-run organization and he's at retirement age without having put much of a dent in that mission.

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4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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