Cyberlaw presentation

The Internet Archive and Open Library:Close, but not quite free

Michael Strickland

April 28, 2010

Founding of Internet Archive

• 1996 -- now• Brewster Kahle

o computer scientisto digital librarian

• "Universal access to all human knowledge in the world"

The Wayback Machine

• Saves copy of publicly available webpages every 2-6 months

• Uses in research about internet• Changed the way think about original digital content• Opened to public in 2001

Wayback Machine and copyright

• The Archive plays it safe• Removal policy similar to YouTube's, but not easy to

appeal removal• 2002 Scientology scandal• Avoided successful litigation against the Archive

Other Internet Archive projects

• More archival of primary source documents - text, audio, video

• Ourmedia: encouraging reuse

Million Books ProjectsOpen Content Alliance

• 2002: 100,000 scanned books for the Million Books Project

• 2005: launched Open Content Alliance with Yahoo• Microsoft, others donate equipment

Business models

• OCA public domain only at the moment• Potential for revenue from copyrighted works (or Google

wouldn't bother)• Expensive but one-time and necessary process

Open Content Alliance / Google Books

• Google Books starts scanning in 2004• Similar to OCA, but scanning copyrighted works, different

endgame• OCA moves slowly legally, but Google got sued

• Eldred v. Ashcroft, Kahle v. Gonzalez

Open Content Alliance / Google Books (cont.)

• Lawsuit settlement could lead to privatization of knowledge

• Chilling effects -> Monopoly over orphan works• Kahle: "The history of digital materials in companies'

hands is one of … loss"• Only non-profits can be trusted long-term

The Open Library

• "One webpage for every book ever published"• Wiki for book data• Next-generation, open catalogue system

Technical overview

• Contributions made without claim to copyright• Software running site is open source• Built for varying levels of participation and contribution

Participating on the wiki

• Wiki calls for more focused details than Wikipedia• Facts: book dimensions, tables of contents, etc.• Very low participation• Raymond: An empty bazaar == a cathedral• Majority of contributions by bots

Working with the API

• Creating a widget for adding data while on third party sites

• API, like rest of site, incomplete

Creativity through freedom

• Media-based sites like Ourmedia encourages creativity through mashups

• Open Library wiki doesn't allow for this• Participating at deeper levels = different kind of creativity

www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001222.html

Generative versus tethered

• Google books : tetheredInternet Archive : generativeOpen Library : both

• Only works for non-profits

Looking forward

• Open Library will be having a larger launch in the coming months

• Will thrive regardless of commercial alternatives (Google Books)