Comment by crazydoggers | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crazydoggers | Hacker News Reader

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Same way a library does. The information is made available to anyone who wants it, the copyrights are maintained intact, and they don’t attempt to profit from the material.

Copyright law specifically allows for libraries and archives to make copies of copyrighted material.

Without such laws, without libraries, knowledge could not be guaranteed to be shared freely among the public, resulting in ever growing knowledge and education gaps between those with means and those without.

Edit: Since you asked for the legal ground, here it is specifically:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/108

And here’s is further discussion by the copyright office itself:

https://www.copyright.gov/policy/section108/discussion-docum...

Congress and the copyright office have made it an important part of copyright law to protect archival, library and fair use doctrine.

I just wanted to add, while I don’t agree with the assessment that copyright holders need to be protected from something like archive.org, i don’t think the parent comment deserved to be flagged, so I vouched for it. I think the question was raised in sincerity, and I think it offers a point of discussion for those not familiar with the issues.

I don’t think it’s helpful to flag things people disagree with, as long as they don’t attempt to spread misinformation, or trolling etc. The parent phrased the topic as a question, meaning I believe they were open to understanding.

I also think it’s relative to the topic posted, as we’re talking about either an attack on archive.org, or a massive recopying of archive data by an unknown.

Talking to people with opposing views is important. Let’s not just shut people down if we don’t agree with something, especially when someone is asking a question.

> i don’t think the parent comment deserved to be flagged, so I vouched for it.

Since archive.org have now updated that the problem scraper is now evading countermeasures and bringing them down repeatedly, and has been identified as an "AI" company, it could end up being an existential risk: if companies start using archive.org as a large-scale commercial IP theft proxy, they will likely face even more legal challenges than they already do.

Yes. The whole AI space using questionable data sources for training is just a tempest in a teapot about to explode.

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