Internet Archive Needs Donations, Has Matching Donor

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Internet Archive Needs Donations, Has Matching Donor

Posted by timothy on Monday December 24, 2012 @01:09AM from the they-do-amazing-stuff dept.

The Internet Archive curates an astounding collection (actually, a collection of collections) of online resources, from historically significant to modern but obscure. Storing, serving and organizing more than 10 petabytes isn't cheap, despite their ongoing efforts to innovate on that front. An anonymous reader writes "An anonymous donor is matching $3 for every $1 given (up to $450,000) until December 31. One petabyte has been paid for so far and the archive is looking at getting three more. 'These massive servers are the backbone of the Archive, and critical to our continued growth. To all of you who've contributed to our fundraising drive, thanks from all of us here at the Internet Archive. '"

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Hey Google, do something! by faragon · 2012-12-24 01:14 · Score: 1

Where are our #Google overlords when it is required? Come on! :-)
1. Re:Hey Google, do something! by Patch86 · 2012-12-24 01:32 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I wonder where the national support is. They're basically doing the job of the Library of Congress, the British Library etc., in terms of being a record keeper of published material. You'd think those organisations (and there must be dozens and dozens of them throughout the world; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit) could each chip in a few thousand dollars a year, wouldn't you?
2. Re:Hey Google, do something! by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2012-12-24 02:13 · Score: 1
  
  Can someone just post the Internet to their Facebook page? Or takes pictures of the Internet, and use Instagram?
  Of course, this may lead to some recursion problems. And who will own that Internet backup . . . ?
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
3. Re:Hey Google, do something! by Princeofcups · 2012-12-24 05:28 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder where the national support is. They're basically doing the job of the Library of Congress, the British Library etc., in terms of being a record keeper of published material. You'd think those organisations (and there must be dozens and dozens of them throughout the world; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit) could each chip in a few thousand dollars a year, wouldn't you?
  They can't because there might be a single copyrighted file in there, and that would make it IP piracy! This is like someone trying to set up National Parks when a territory has been designated for land grab. The Internet Archive undermines all the paywalls, and big business will not let their pet governments aid in that. As a matter of fact, I'm really surprised that they haven't been sued out of existence yet. It's only a matter of time before they have to move the servers to Borneo, or someplace.
  
  --
  The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
4. Re:Hey Google, do something! by Jawnn · 2012-12-24 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder where the national support is. They're basically doing the job of the Library of Congress, the British Library etc., in terms of being a record keeper of published material. You'd think those organisations (and there must be dozens and dozens of them throughout the world; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_deposit) could each chip in a few thousand dollars a year, wouldn't you?
  You're right, of course. I can think of few expenditures of public funds than this, but I just don't have the stomach for the argument that would ensue over spending public funds on archiving .
5. Re:Hey Google, do something! by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-12-24 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  I wonder where the national support is. They're basically doing the job of the Library of Congress, the British Library etc.,
  Good, sounds like they're becoming obsolete, on a very tiny budget. Yay, technology.
  could each chip in a few thousand dollars a year, wouldn't you?
  Eh, they have thousands of pensions to fund instead of archiving stuff.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
6. Re:Hey Google, do something! by DrVxD · 2012-12-24 09:49 · Score: 1
  
  They can't because there might be a single copyrighted file in there, and that would make it IP piracy!
  
  Actually, there's already a massive amount of copyrighted material on there (most material is implicitly copyright in most jurisdictions UNLESS the authour takes specific steps to ensure otherwise).
  Printing it wouldn't make it any more pirated than simply archiving it.
  
  --
  Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
7. Re:Hey Google, do something! by magic+maverick+ · 2012-12-24 22:50 · Score: 1
  
  Ah yeah. Funny thing. Did you know the NLA does give money to the IA to run PANDORA? So there's one. The Library of Congress also works with the IA to build specific collections. So that's two. Other national libraries (and non-national libraries) also work with the IA to build collections of web based material. And they generally pay for it...
  Did you know that legal deposit often doesn't cover electronic material? The NLA, for example, has no legal right to collect electronic material, and asks permission before archiving a website.
  The more you know...
  
  --
  HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Donation Link by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:17 · Score: 5, Informative

Here's the link to donate just in case the editor's oversite would be enough to disuade you.
1. Re:Donation Link by wonkey_monkey · 2012-12-24 01:30 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  An anonymous reader writes
  
  An anonymous donor is matching...
  And an Anonymous Coward gives us the missing link.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
2. Re:Donation Link by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:53 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  An Anonymous Coward is the missing link, you insensitive clod!
3. Re:Donation Link by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 02:53 · Score: 1
  
  Pedantic AC here, letting you know it should be oversight
4. Re:Donation Link by oodaloop · 2012-12-24 03:02 · Score: 1
  
  For all intensive porpoises, their the same.
  
  --
  Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Well... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

Should we support them despite their unwillingness to keep records for websites which later-on put a robots.txt on their domain?
I can understand recently archived material being removed, but when someone buys a domain down the line and puts a robots.txt on their new site, it removes ALL OF THE PAST MATERIAL! And it seems that Archive.org tends to ignore the problem.
1. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 06:12 · Score: 2
  
  Doesn't remove it permanently, just hides it.
Just upload it to the cloud by alen · 2012-12-24 01:29 · Score: 1, Funny

Unlimited storage and CHEAP
Have to say it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 01:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

And they accept Bitcoin ( http://archive.org/about/faqs.php#311 ). They've received 686btc so far( http://blockchain.info/address/17gN64BPHtxi4mEM3qWrxdwhieUvRq8R2r ). Not bad.
1. Re:Have to say it by slashmydots · 2012-12-24 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  Ooh that's around $10,000 USD. Not bad indeed. And y'all didn't think this was a bitcoin story, lol.
  Btw, if they have a decent amount of lolcat collections in there, they could definitely make up that much money selling funny lolcat shirts!
2. Re:Have to say it by magic+maverick+ · 2012-12-24 22:53 · Score: 1
  
  Ya. I donated a few of my coins. I'm not sure how the matching donations thing works though. Does anyone know?
  
  --
  HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
great service by ssam · 2012-12-24 03:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

I was recently involved in producing a feature length creative commons film. we wanted to make it available as a http download (as well as bittorrent and streaming via youtube). we used internet archive. its been downloaded over 25k times from them. finding a commercial host that could manage that would have cost a fair bit of money (which we don't have). so thanks archive.org, hope my donation helps.
1. Re:great service by ssam · 2012-12-24 09:41 · Score: 1
  
  http://archive.org/details/Decay2012-TheLhcZombieFilmfullFilm
  (if you follow the links through to the films website, there are the torrent download options and streaming)
Re:Minimum suggested level $25? by RealGene · 2012-12-24 03:25 · Score: 1, Insightful

Might I suggest that you are a cheapskate.
$25/annum = 7 cents ($0.07) per day.
How much do you pay for your mobile data plan and/or ISP?

--
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
Re:Minimum suggested level $25? by drosboro · 2012-12-24 03:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

Really? Did you just call a guy who ACTUALLY donated a cheapskate?
Compare how often you use your mobile data plan and/or ISP to how often you use archive.org's services. I use my ISP every single day, for hours, and couldn't get a lot of my work done without them. I still gripe about how much I'm forced to pay them, too! By comparison, I've maybe looked for one site (which wasn't there) on archive.org in the last year or two.
They need $150,000 in donations. At BenJeremy's $5 level, they'd only need 30,000 donors. Just gonna guess his donation will come in well above the median for users of the site.
Re:Minimum suggested level $25? by BenJeremy · 2012-12-24 04:05 · Score: 3, Interesting

Might I suggest that you are a cheapskate.
$25/annum = 7 cents ($0.07) per day.
How much do you pay for your mobile data plan and/or ISP?
So, it would have been better for me to look at the $25 level, say "too much" and walk away without donating anything? At least people wouldn't berate me.
I have to wonder how many people looked at that $25 level and said, "too much" - probably a lot of money walked away from that page. People willing to donate $25 will pay $25. They don't need a minimum suggested level.
As for your math, I've used the archives fewer times than I can count on my fingers.... I don't use it every day. It's faulty logic to calculate what this sort of service is worth to an individual... even individuals use the archives differently, some to dig up old content from a site they might have once gone to, others use it to recover content they once had on their own sites; the latter might be inclined to (and should) give more - I'm not in that group.
Re:Minimum suggested level $25? by kervin · 2012-12-24 05:36 · Score: 1, Informative

It's suggested. As you found, you can type a lesser amount in the textbox. Where's the issue?
thanks for the info by junk · 2012-12-24 08:05 · Score: 2

Many things on /. are worthy of debate and lead to much trolling. This isn't. This is a Good Thing. I'm throwing in a couple bucks and anyone old enough to remember what a phone call and how pagers work should too.
Re:Minimum suggested level $25? by RealGene · 2012-12-24 08:05 · Score: 3, Informative

Here's the problem:
Amazon payments charges:
Transactions greater than or equal to $10.00: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. So a $25 donation yields $23.97 to archive.org, or 95 cents on the dollar.
Transactions less than or equal to $9.99: 5.0% + $0.05 per transaction. So a $5 donation yields $4.70, or 94 cents on the dollar.

Now, they are most likely using Amazon's volume payment system, so are paying between 2.2 and 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction, but only for transactions greater than $9.99. Let's assume the lower rate (although it's calculated as a 3-month average, so I doubt they're eligible). Now a $25 donation yields $24.15, or 96 cents on the dollar. It's just not as cost-effective for them to solicit tiny donations (btw, PayPal's rates are similar).
As to the worth of the service, whether you use it or not, archive.org is still there 24/7/365. Would you prefer to submit your query and then wait 72 hours for the results?
..and yes, I donated also.

--
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
Re:Only Paypal or Amazon by junk · 2012-12-24 09:43 · Score: 1

I went to donate and saw that. I'm actually very unhappy about it but I won't be able to donate because they only accept payment via systems I don't trust. If there a direct payment option, I'd have opened my wallet immediately but I refuse to do business with PayPal and just don't trust Amazon. Call me paranoid but it is what it is.
Re:Only Paypal or Amazon by junk · 2012-12-24 09:47 · Score: 1

Correction: I'm mailing a check. Pain in the ass but at least I'm reducing the number of untrusted hands involved in my transaction.
Network for Good by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 09:59 · Score: 1

I use this website networkforgood.org to give to charities annually. It's functional and every charity I looked for was there. I split my donations up because I don't have a lot of money, and hope that diversified charitable donation is as effective as diversified financial investment. So I give around $20 to 10 organizations (now 11, just added Internet Archive to the list) every year (and hope to do so indefinitely, and to increase the amounts and add some other orgs if I have more money in the future).
You can control your preferences as to how much you give each, how often, designating the donation, what information they receive about you, etc.
Are there other similar non-profit donation systems like this I should consider instead?
Just say no... by pongo000 · 2012-12-24 11:35 · Score: 2

...until they actually make their archives downloadable to the general public. Their TOS expressly prohibits downloading from the site, which makes their archive useless to the masses. And don't tell me about Warrick...I'm well aware of it, as well as the fact that they haven't been accepting submissions for months.
Here's the relevant cite from the FAQ:
Can people download sites from the Wayback?
Our terms of use specify that users of the Wayback Machine are not to copy data from the collection. If there are special circumstances that you think the Archive should consider, please contact info at archive dot org.
Who makes their PetaBoxes? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-24 15:14 · Score: 1

Used to be a spinoff company called Capricorn Technologies making the PetaBox, but their site is dead, and some indian outsourcing company is polluting the Wikipedia page about the PetaBox.
The new pictures seem to imply maybe AIC/Quanta hardware for the servers, so who really is the hardware maker behind PetaBox v4, which these donations supposedly will be used to pay for?