The Persistence of Memory (lots of copies keep stuff safe)
December 5, 2016 11:39 AM   Subscribe

"The history of libraries is one of loss." After receiving a second National Security Letter, the Internet Archive, already concerned by some of Donald Trump's statements on the campaign trail have announced plans to build a copy of the archive in Canada, so that "no one will ever be able to change the past just because there is no digital record of it. The Web needs a memory, the ability to look back."

"On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change. It was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change. For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible. It means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions. It means serving patrons in a world in which government surveillance is not going away; indeed it looks like it will increase."

The Internet Archive and Wayback Machine are asking for donations to help build the Internet Archive of Canada.
posted by TwoToneRow (8 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can also look into IA.BAK if you are interested in helping back up the archive yourself. Every little bit helps!
posted by trackofalljades at 11:56 AM on December 5, 2016


Is "Let's stash a copy in a different Five Eyes country!" really a viable solution?
posted by emelenjr at 12:21 PM on December 5, 2016 [6 favorites]


This is the opposite of a privacy concern in terms of protecting the archive. To the extent it's a privacy concern for the reader they are exposed to their domestic intelligence agencies (and probably 5 eyes, regardless of geolocation) regardless.

It is a good thing they are doing this although the reasons are frankly terrifying. I also worry it's not enough; if there's political will for it presumably taking out a backup will require less than stuxnet, though there might be more hesitation to launch a cyber attack on Canada than Iran.
posted by PMdixon at 1:40 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Sadly, this is not a Canadian non-profit or charity, so most Canadians can't donate in a tax-efficient way. I would so like to help - even with the diect work - but IA Canada isn't in a useful form for Canadians.

If TPP gets canned, Canada will remain one of the few Death+50 copyright term countries.
posted by scruss at 1:41 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is the opposite of a privacy concern in terms of protecting the archive. To the extent it's a privacy concern for the reader they are exposed to their domestic intelligence agencies (and probably 5 eyes, regardless of geolocation) regardless.

I take "private" in this case to mean out of the grubby and potentially 1984-type-editing-of-history of increasingly dystopian security agencies and political parties.
posted by Celsius1414 at 7:43 PM on December 5, 2016


@scruss: this is why Wikilivres is hosted in Canada to support the American-hosted Wikimedia Foundation projects. It's unfortunate that we have to play this game of hopping around hosting for sensible copyrights.
posted by koavf at 10:15 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


One can also thank previous administrations: For years now, one of the common selling points for cloud storage providers in Canada has been "None of our servers or switches are located in the United States."

And (hopefully) neither are any of the admin-password staff.
posted by Mogur at 5:06 AM on December 6, 2016 [3 favorites]


Pity that we lost Internet Archive's own jscott/textfiles from the community here.

I miss his contributions here, but at least he's still plugging away at IA.
posted by enfa at 9:50 AM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


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