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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