Internet Archive |
The Internet Archive (archive.org), located in the Presidio of San Francisco of San Francisco, was founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996 and is dedicated to maintaining an archive of the Internet. Their collections include snapshots of the World Wide Web (archived copies of pages, taken at various points in time), films, audio recordings, many of which are high-quality live concert recordings from bands that allow it (see List of bands which permit recordings of their performances), books, and Software.
The Archive makes the collections available at no cost to researchers, historians, and scholars. At present, it takes someone with a certain level of technical knowledge to access collections in a way other than the archive.org website, but there is no requirement that a user be affiliated with any particular organization.
According to archive.org: Most societies place importance on preserving artifacts of their culture and heritage. Without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form. The Archive s mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive collaborates with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.
Because of its goal of preserving human knowledge and artifacts, and making their collection available to all, proponents of the archive have likened it to the Library at Alexandria.
= Project policies and examples =
== The Wayback Machine ==
The archive also maintains the Wayback Machine, with content donated by Alexa Internet. Once given a URL, this tool allows the user to see versions of the corresponding web page over time.
Alexa Internet, in cooperation with the Internet Archive, designed a three dimensional index that allows browsing of web documents over multiple time periods, and turned this unique feature into the Wayback Machine . [http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#8]
Examples of the Wayback Machine s archives: [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/www.amazon.com Amazon] | [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/www.microsoft.com Microsoft] | [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/news.bbc.co.uk BBC News] | [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/www.google.com Google] | [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/dmoz.org Open Directory] | [http://web.archive.org/web/%2A/www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
The archive generally takes six months before putting snapshots of pages online, though this may stretch to as long as 12 months due to time delayed donation from Alexa.
In 2003 the archive paid $301,960 to Alexa Internet.
The archive s total collection in .
===Origin of the name Wayback Machine ===
The name Wayback Machine is a reference to a Rocky and Bullwinkle Show cartoon serial. Mr. Peabody, a bowtie-endowed dog with a professorial air, and his assistant, a boy named Sherman , use a time machine named the Wayback Machine to visit fame events in History, usually going awry for comedy reasons.
===Archived pages: legal status===
Polska is the and unauthenticated source.
Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys rejected Polskas assertion of hearsay, holding that the archived copies were not themselves statements susceptible to hearsay exclusion, since they merely showed what Polska had previously posted on its site. He also noted that, since Polska was seeking to suppress evidence of its own previous statements, the snapshots would not be barred even if they were hearsay. Over Polskas objection, Judge Keys accepted an affidavit from an Internet Archive employee as sufficient to authenticate the snapshots for admissibility.
([http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.phpid=24177 from archive.org])
== Media collections ==
Most of their movies, books, and recordings are public domain or licensed under a Creative Commons License. The audio section largely includes music from independent artists, as well as more established List of bands which permit recordings of their performances (e.g. The Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Toad the Wet Sprocket, 311 (band), Fugazi, et cetera).
=Controversy involving the archive=
==Removal of Scientology sites==
In late 2002, the Internet Archive removed various sites critical of Scientology from the Wayback Machine. The error message stated that this was in response to a request by the site owner . However, it was later clarified that lawyers from the Church of Scientology had demanded the removal, on unknown legal grounds, and that the actual site owners did not want their material removed.
=Moving Image collection=
Aside from feature films, their Moving Image collection includes: newsreels; classic cartoons; pro- and anti- war propaganda; and ephemeral material from Prelinger Archives and Skip Elsheimer s A.V. Geeks collection, such as advertising, educational and industrial films and amateur and home movie collections.
Their Brick Films collection contains stop-motion animation filmed with Lego blocks, some of which are remakes of feature films. The Election 2004 collection is a non-partisan public resource for sharing video materials related to the 2004 United States Presidential Election. The Independent News collection includes sub-collections such as the Internet Archive s World At War competition from 2001 , in which contestants created short films demonstrating why access to history matters. Among their most-downloaded video files are eyewitness recordings of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Some of the films available on the Internet Archive are:
=See also=
=External links=
*[http://www.archive.org The Internet Archive] *[http://web.archive.org Wayback Machine] *[http://www.petabox.org/ Petabox, a useful invention created in collaboration with the Internet Archive] *[http://www.archive.org/web/hardware.php Pictures and descriptions of the Wayback Machine hardware, with cost information] *[http://jnana.wikinerds.org/index.php/Form_990-PF_for_Internet_Archive_%282003%29 Form 990-PF for Internet Archive (2003)]
=References=
*Scientology controversy **[http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959236.html CNET story] **[http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.phpid=778 Forum post at archive.org] **[http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.phpname=News&file=article&sid=350 LawMeme article].|
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