[toomuchtodo]

Agree the US government should contribute in some capacity. Agree they should be robustly funded to do this. But, checks and balances are also important, and when a node goes rouge or dark, the system must be fault tolerant and operate when degradation occurs. I previously said "I trust Brewster and the rest of the IA gang more than the US government to safeguard the Internet Archive." [1] I feel this assertion has been proven out over the last few weeks.

ArchiveTeam stands on its own as an independent, community driven volunteer digital archival and preservation effort. If you don't understand why, what, and how they operate, look closer and be more curious [2].

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41984664

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fence

[badlibrarian]

If the checks and balances of NARA and LOC (6,000 employees, $1.5 billion in annual funding) is Brewster Kahle asking for $10 on pages serving pirated Nintendo games, then we're in a bit of trouble, aren't we?

[toomuchtodo]

On the contrary, the fact that a single person's charitable digital archive can stand toe to toe with a global superpower's archival efforts is a sign that success is possible. We may see things differently though, and that's fine. Would I want to fund NARA and LOC more? Or the Internet Archive? I prefer the latter. Checks and balances. I have donated $10 on your behalf (in addition to my annual donations).

(lots of good people at NARA and the LOC, but they are subject to the whims of the US electorate, which is not great; the Internet Archive is not)

[badlibrarian]

I think archive.org deserves more funding and I also think they need to decide if they're an archive, a library, or a pirate site. Since each has a different set of costs, legal risk, and projected longevity.

For the record my opinion is that they need to focus on archival and with a few tweaks could make it safe for more users to upload more material. Going legit archive (as their name implies) instead of hiding behind the DMCA and playing high-stakes poker with copyright law would also make it possible for more entities to provide direct support.

I also disagree that NARA and LoC is subject to whims of the electorate. The Library of Congress is set up to serve, well, Congress. Who funds it. Lotta barriers to cross there, even in these weird times.

I'll take that risk over one guy with limited governance who seems genuinely surprised that he keeps gets hacked and sued. There's a chance the whole thing goes away because he couldn't resist serving up free Frank Sinatra records and got hit with a $621 million lawsuit after he thrice refused to take the stuff down.

[toomuchtodo]

> I also disagree that NARA and LoC is subject to whims of the electorate.

National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks - https://www.404media.co/national-archives-workers-unsure-if-... - February 6th, 2025

[toomuchtodo]

Trump dismisses head of the National Archives - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-dismisse... - February 7th, 2025

[badlibrarian]

I do not share your pessimism. And you do not seem to understand the nuances of a representative democracy as it pertains to the Executive branch.

Please report back when the transition from the 11th Archivist to the 12th Archivist causes any data or paper loss.

https://www.archives.gov/about/history/archivists

I trust these folks far more than the "not affiliated with archive.org" Archive Team and their wget scripts that somehow jam data via backdoor into the web.archive.org database.

https://www.archives.gov/about/organization/senior-staff

If someone pulls nonsense at archives.gov, whistles will be blown and the press will respond. When nonsense goes on at archive.org, I see hagiographies, third party apologists, and people who lack the qualifications to get a job filing paper in a University library mismanaging simple archival projects.