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Comment by nonbirithm | Hacker News Reader

I really hope this isn't the end of the Wayback Machine. The IA being a centralized entity with an agenda not everyone agrees with was a problem not explored enough until it was too late.

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Indeed, the Wayback Machine is an invaluable resource, more and more so as older sites drop off the net.

But hosting, for example, multiple complete MAME ROM sets (and the existence of turnkey - albeit non-commercial - products which download them automatically) is in a completely different category from the Wayback Machine - and it would be a shame if the former was endangered by the latter.

I think there is quite a bit difference between archiving stuff. And making it publicly available. The first one make lot of sense, even if technically the content does not follow copyright laws. But there is important cultural history with it that should be considered. But on other side, maybe access should be limited in someways.

The problem is that an Internet Archive where you you have to show up at some building in the Bay Area during office hours to access the archive is quite a bit less valuable than the archive in its current form.

I'm not saying in person, but at least some type of vouching before sharing the material.

The details don't really matter. Having to say present research credentials from some university, even if virtually, isn't a whole lot more inclusive.

Someone would spin up a nonprofit and buy the assets and keep it going

Would it be more difficult to get funding during harash economic times?

It's already a nonprofit. The shell game works for for-profit corporations. I don't think it'll work when the kind of companies that usually play that game are the ones after them.

specific assets of a non-profit must be transferred to another non-profit, with some oversight about costs. It is possible and does happen.

The internet archive does facilitate mirrors under the LOCKSS (lots of copies keeps stuff safe) philosophy.

If it was shut down due to a civil injunction for copyright violation, I don’t think the Internet Archive would be able to transfer the Wayback Machine’s data to anyone else without defying that injunction and risk being held in contempt.

Someone would need to immediately begin trying to mirror the entire Wayback Machine’s archive, ideally hosting the mirror in Luxembourg or the Netherlands.

Archive Team Archive Team, assemble!

Hopefully this is already happening...

how would this painstaking work be performed by a decentralised entity? Human beings have agendas, I am not sure why you expect them to be machines or politically neutral. This is normally understood when one donates to a charity.

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