All articles tagged with #internet archive
TypePad, a blogging service based on Movable Type and owned by Endurance International Group, is shutting down, taking all user content with it, leaving only archived versions available through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Reddit will restrict the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine from crawling most of its content after discovering AI companies scraping data, citing concerns over privacy and policy violations. The move limits the archive to only indexing Reddit's homepage, aiming to protect user data and enforce platform policies. Reddit has previously restricted access to data for AI training and has ongoing disputes with AI companies over data scraping practices.
Epic Games has allowed The Internet Archive to host installation files for the classic games Unreal and Unreal Tournament, making them freely available for download despite being removed from digital sale. This move comes as a nod to game preservation, allowing fans to access these iconic titles from the late 1990s. The Unreal series concluded with Unreal Tournament 3 in 2007, and a planned free-to-play version, Unreal Tournament 3X, appears to have been cancelled.
Epic Games has allowed Unreal and Unreal Tournament, the pioneering FPS games using the Unreal engine, to be available for free on the Internet Archive. Originally released in 1998 and 1999, these games were delisted from storefronts in 2023 but are now preserved by the fan community Old Unreal. While official servers are no longer active, community servers still support online play. Epic has a history of supporting its older properties, previously releasing assets from its defunct game Paragon for public use.
Google has discontinued offering links to cached versions of web pages alongside search results, citing improved page loading reliability as the reason for retiring the feature. Google's Danny Sullivan expressed hope of adding links to the Internet Archive within search results to allow users to easily see how a page changed over time, but noted that it's just a personal idea for now. The Internet Archive, which doesn't list Google as a donor, recently criticized Google's decision, pointing out that Google still caches content but has stopped making the cache available. Sullivan also mentioned that users with a Search Console account can use URL Inspector to see what Google's crawler saw looking at their own page.
Google has retired its "cached" link feature, which allowed users to access archived backups of websites, citing improved page loading and cost savings as reasons for the change. The responsibility for preserving old versions of webpages now falls more heavily on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, with Google potentially partnering with them to show historical versions of web pages in search results. Users can still access cached pages by using the URL Inspector tool in Google Search Console or by creating their own cache links using specific URL formats.
Google Search will no longer maintain cached versions of webpages, a feature that allowed users to access pages when they were down or had changed. The decision to retire this feature was made due to improvements in page loading reliability. While users can still create their own cached links, Google has removed the cached links from its search results and support pages. The move places a larger burden on the Internet Archive for archiving and tracking changes on webpages.
Google Search is discontinuing its "cached" web page feature, which provided a snapshot of a web page the last time Google indexed it. Google claims the feature is no longer necessary due to improvements in page loading, but many users, including SEO managers and news professionals, relied on it for various purposes such as checking site validity and monitoring updates. The decision has been met with criticism, and Google may consider adding links to the Internet Archive in the future, but no promises have been made.
Google has officially removed links to page caches from its search results, citing improved page loading and the feature's status as a "basically unmaintained legacy feature." The removal has been taking place gradually over the past couple of months, with the "cache:" search operator also set to be discontinued in the near future. Google's search liaison, Danny Sullivan, mentioned the possibility of adding links to the Internet Archive as an alternative to show how webpages have changed over time.
A cache of old mobile games and apps from TestFlight, a platform for developers to share in-development versions of their apps, has been discovered on the Internet Archive. The 1.2TB collection, known as the "teraleak," is a significant find for preservationists as many of these older apps are no longer available for download. The apps, dating from around 2012 to 2015, were scraped from the TestFlight website and uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2015. While the apps cannot be run on modern phones, efforts are underway to organize and explore the archived collection.
Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol, and other record labels have filed a $412 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive, accusing the organization of operating as an "illegal record store" through its "Great 78 Project." The suit claims that Internet Archive has violated copyright laws by reproducing and distributing pre-1972 musical works without authorization. The plaintiffs argue that the organization's activities go beyond preservation and research, seeking to provide free and unlimited access to music for everyone, regardless of copyright. Internet Archive plans to appeal the lawsuit.
Record labels, including Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, have filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Internet Archive over its "Great 78 Project," which offers a streaming collection of digitized music from vintage records. The labels claim that the project acts as an illegal record store and could result in damages of up to $412 million. The Internet Archive, which compares itself to a library, is already facing a separate lawsuit from book publishers. The labels argue that the recordings are available on authorized streaming services and are not at risk of being lost or forgotten.
The Internet Archive has a collection of CD-ROM files that span decades, including games and software from the 1989-2001 era. The archive has just under 46,000 entries, from applications and games to gatherings of public-domain software or clip art. The collection features over 71,000 entries, conveniently sorted into dozens of categories. To run these programs on Windows, you can use compatibility mode, which simulates a previous Windows OS for the purpose of running software incompatible with Windows 10 or 11. The Internet Archive also has a huge collection of old arcade games.
San Francisco's Internet Archive has lost a lawsuit filed by publishing houses Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House, who objected to the nonprofit's lending of e-books, citing copyright violation. The Internet Archive defended itself on the grounds of "fair use," but U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled that its practices were not considered "transformative," one of the primary tenets of fair use. The Internet Archive plans to appeal the ruling.
A US district judge has ruled that the Internet Archive's Open Library project, which partners with libraries to scan print books in their collections and offer them as lendable e-books, violates copyright. The project had no right to reproduce 127 of the publishers' books named in the suit, the judge decided. The publishers suing had alleged that the Open Library provided a way for libraries to avoid paying e-book licensing fees that generate substantial revenue for publishers. The Internet Archive plans to appeal.