It was an absolutely bone-headed poke-the-bear move and we should count ourselves lucky that it was only a chunk of the library and not the whole archive that got nuked. IA holds priceless and irreplaceable data, and while the library initiative was a well-intentioned move during the pandemic it was way too radical for the keepers of our shared digital history.

And this is why I respect Anna's Archive. If we want information to be free, I think we should consider intentionally violating copyright as an act of civil disobedience. I'm not sure I'm ready to go that far, but I respect the people at AA who are.

Agreed. It was poking the bear. The other big three grey-circuit services have nothing to lose because they never claimed to be legit.

If you claim the moral high ground you have to be impeccable. It also didn't help anyone during COVID because all the stuff was out there already on less legit services. Some make it super easy with telegram bots etc.

I'm sad that they screwed this up. Because the archive is a very valuable service. They've lost a lot of money, goodwill and reputation now. And gained nothing.

The worst part is, it's unimaginable that this would ever have ended well.

It wasn't a bad idea in principle but they should have worked to get some publishers on board, could have been a PR win for them too.

I am just hoping they get on top of the massive trove of game ROM's before Nintendo's lawyers have a field day.

Personally, I say they should be free for everyone, the lawyers however think the complete opposite and they have the means of enforcing this.