this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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278
Take Action: Defend the Internet Archive (blog.archive.org)
submitted 1 week ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] db2@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

A coalition of major record labels has filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive—demanding $700 million for our work preserving and providing access to historical 78rpm records. These fragile, obsolete discs hold some of the earliest recordings of a vanishing American culture. But this lawsuit goes far beyond old records. It’s an attack on the Internet Archive itself.

This lawsuit is an existential threat to the Internet Archive and everything we preserve—including the Wayback Machine, a cornerstone of memory and preservation on the internet.

At a time when digital information is disappearing, being rewritten, or erased entirely, the tools to preserve history must be defended—not dismantled.

This isn’t just about music. It’s about whether future generations will have access to knowledge, history, and culture.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Genuinely curious, as I truly don't know, has a change.org petition ever made a positive difference when fighting billionaires?

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's not necessarily the point. Organizing political action has many components and if the IA want these signatures, perhaps they need them. This is not necessarily the same as a random person making a random petition on change.org.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 10 points 1 week ago

Yea, good point. Maybe something devised by their lawyers that could be used in a court of law to show public opinion without misinterpretation.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

It's still a change.org petition, which as far as I've ever seen or heard, merely grants the petition to be responded to by the president if it gets enough signatures (unless I am confusing it with another petition thing?). And the current president could not give less of a fuck.

[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

unless I am confusing it with another petition thing?

Yes. Obama had a petition thing directly on the Whitehouse website, and he would respond to those that got enough signatures. Trump obviously deleted it.

My general opinion of change.org is that it's just a placebo for people to feel like they're doing something productive when they should be calling their relevant political representatives, instead.

However, since the IA appears to have started this petition themselves, I agree with the other commenter that...

if the IA want these signatures, perhaps they need them.

[–] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My general opinion of change.org is that it's just a placebo for people to feel like they're doing something productive when they should be calling their relevant political representatives, instead.

This is precisely why I asked the question, because I feel the same way.

I do wonder still if there is any way this petition could actually be useful for IA, though. My hopes are not high.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's got no legal standing, but as many things in life, when you want to advocate for something and you want to say that something is important to people, the arguments are a lot easier to make when you have "evidence." A bunch of signatures can serve this purpose. Could be something they could use in a legal argument. This petition could even be just a first step, to be followed by others methods or actions.

Another function it could serve is getting people engaged and aware of the issue, spreading further awareness.

Another function is getting the contact information of people willing to do something about this issue. They could later leverage that to ask for other actions that are more meaningful.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Help me understand. The internet archive has digitized old records and is providing access to these recordings to people (paid or unpaid) and music labels want to be paid royalties?