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The Internet Archive Is Building a Canadian Copy To Protect Itself From Trump (theverge.com)

The Internet Archive, a digital library nonprofit that preserves billions of webpages for the historical record, is building a backup archive in Canada after the election of Donald Trump. The Verge adds: Today, it began collecting donations for the Internet Archive of Canada, intended to create a copy of the archive outside the United States. "On November 9th in America, we woke up to a new administration promising radical change," writes founder Brewster Kahle. "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."

26 of 590 comments (clear)

  1. Valid by TFlan91 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With Trumps position on libel laws, smart move to project against legal action.

    Still need to project against the ever-in-the-news cyber vulnerabilities. In today's world, physical location only goes so far.

    1. Re:Valid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm firm believer in backups, so Awesome!

      But where were these concerns about "government surveillance" not going away when Pres. Obama was expanding them rather than ending them like he promised in his first campaign.

    2. Re: Valid by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Informative

      He's elected president. Not dictator. He doesn't have the power to "scrub the web." Asinine people sensationalizing paranoia.

    3. Re:Valid by NatasRevol · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You sound a lot like the winner. Who's ranted against free speech, and freedom of the press. And that's just this week.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    4. Re: Valid by MouseR · · Score: 5, Insightful

      He's elected president. Not dictator.

      Someone needs to remind him during his discourses.

    5. Re: Valid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Problem is Trump doesn't know the difference. He has ZERO clue what the job (Trumps first real life job by the way) of President entails, it's responsibilities or capabilities. There are millions of 5th graders in America who have more politician and global knowledge that this wind bag douche TV personality real estate swindler who has been handed EVERYTHING to him and has never had to work or KNOW anything in his entire life.

      I just hope the Presidential advisors do a good job of running the country for the next 4 years because it sure as hell won't be Trump at the real helm. He'll only be at the helm for photo ops and to complain about the media and everyone bashing on his utter incompetence. Whining like a little 5 year old about everyone picking on him.

    6. Re: Valid by Verdatum · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Lincoln didn't have the power to suspend Habeas Corpus. Roosevelt didn't have the power to send American citizens of Japanese-decent to internment camps.

      Honestly, even if Trump wasn't elected, this is still a very good idea. The Internet Archive is one of the most important sources of information ever created. I think we should put a copy of it on every continent at the very least.

    7. Re: Valid by Icegryphon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Some people seem to have forgotten Eric Holder Shutting down Mega-upload and other websites.
      Obama administration also gave away control to ICANN.
      I'm sure nothing bad with happen ;^)

  2. Well then... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It means serving patrons in a world in which government surveillance is not going away; indeed it looks like it will increase.
     
    Why didn't they start this years ago when Obama extended and expanded the Patriot Act? Sounds like more leftist hypocrisy and hyperbole to me.

    1. Re:Well then... by butchersong · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is simply a marketing tactic. Canada is not exactly an ideal spot to locate such a backup in any case given their hate speech legislation and tactic of slapping very heavy fines on people who might have offended one of an infinite number of gender pronoun protected groups.

    2. Re:Well then... by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At least three backups, Iceland, Russia and China. Not that Russia and China are great, their data will likely have to be encrypted...but they are among the few that won't just take an American order and execute.

      Each should have a provision for marking part of its dataset 'edited by court order' (in the foreign copies, so out of the crooked courts reach).

      Canada's hate speech laws are awful, almost rival Muslim nations for 'worst practice'.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Who Will Protect the Internet Archive Itself? by Baldrson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you have a domain name under which you have a lot of content -- an example is kuro5hin.org -- and, after a decade or so you find yourself impoverished and stressed to the point that you can't renew the domain registration (as did Rusty Foster), a domain squatter jumps on it and holds it hostage for thousands of dollars. When that happens, frequently even "The Wayback Machine" is told to deep-six the archived content by the simple expedient of placing a robots.txt file in the home directory of the hijacked domain. "The Wayback Machine" then dutifully removes public access to the content. OH but the fun doesn't stop there! So now let's say you fork over the ransom money to the domain squatter, get the domain name back and remove the robots.txt. Of course "The Wayback Machine" then restores public access to all those articles... right?

    WRONG!

    archive.org does keep it stored and it is accessible to those with insider status, but no more public access EVER.

    There really is value in hoarding history and if you can get away with it by doing it "on accident" all the better!

  4. Re:Canada too close... by tomhath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nah. Put it in Mexico; it will be protected by a big wall.

  5. paranoia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Really to protect from Trump? I'm not a supporter, but the paranoid reactions to his presidency are just insane. If that truly is the reason, it is just nuts.

    1. Re:paranoia by k6mfw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seems reasonable, Trump is nuts.

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
  6. Only now? by edibobb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That should have been done years ago. It's stupid to keep something unique, important, and easily duplicated in a single country. The "Trump" point is that some people think he's got a low regard for constitutional rights, and will pack the Supreme Court to this end. This could make it possible (and legal) for the government to effectively revise history by editing the archives.

    1. Re:Only now? by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that the orange idiot thinks that burning a U.S. flag merits prison time or loss of citizenship, I'd say it's a given that he has a low regard for constitutional rights.

      --
      Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
  7. Surprised they aren't doing this already by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They should be keeping copies of the archive in multiple locations, along with parity files which can be used to validate potentially compromised and reconstruct corrupted data. That way if one location goes down or is destroyed (fires happen), you still have copies elsewhere. If one site gets hacked and the data changed, you can cross-reference the parity info with other sites to determine which is real and which is modified, and revert the changed data. Kinda like a worldwide ZFS or RAID 5.

    Trump makes for a convenient excuse. But given that they're literally keeping snapshots of history, they should already be taking these steps just to safeguard the integrity of the data.

  8. Amazing over-reaction of the left, like 8 years ag by ageoffri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The progressive elements have become nothing if predictable. It wasn't that long ago that Obama got the Nobel Peace prize simply for being elected President. Now we have the opposite but equal over-reaction with. Instead of Obama saving the world, we have Trump destroying it. I have no doubt that just like Obama didn't earn the Nobel Peace prize, Trump won't earn the terror his election has triggered.

    --
    -- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
  9. One little problem by Orgasmatron · · Score: 4, Interesting

    America is the only place in the world where it is legally permitted to criticize anyone and everyone.

    See, for example: The creepy tyranny of Canada's hate speech laws

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
    1. Re:One little problem by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 4, Informative

      Don't worry, Trump has already promised to fix that.

  10. Re:What's Trump Got To Do With It? by HiThere · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes, but that's a part of the consistent pattern. The Democrats use a need of the people to create enhanced government power. (Never mind whether it's a real need of the people, it just needs to be sold as one.) Then the Republicans take power and use that increased power for elitist ends. Then the Democrats take power and use a need of the people to create enhanced government power.....

    At no point in the cycle is the government power decreased, despite the rhetoric sometimes used by the Republicans.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  11. Why Canada? by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Informative

    We do not have 1/4 the free speech laws as America. In fact right now we are looking at Bill C-16, which may class improper pronoun use as harassment. Making it entirely possibly that every time someone transitions, all archives of their past gender would need to be updated or erased. While I am not positive this one law is a serious threat to The Internet Archive operating in Canada, it shows how tenuous their situation would be if they operated in Canada.

    This is as ridiculous as American citizens talking about moving to Canada. You already need id to vote here and we do not allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country. We are the exact thing all these people do not want America to become.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  12. Queen of Canada by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Informative

    isnt canada still technically ruled by the queen of england??

    No Canada is technically ruled by the Queen of Canada. The title is held by the same person but it is entirely separate and equal to her title as the Queen of England. The Canadian and UK Parliaments are equal but separate: no law passed by the UK parliament affects Canada and no law passed by the Canadian parliament affects the UK. But please don't let these facts get in the way of a good rant...

  13. Re:Amazing over-reaction of the left, like 8 years by Verdatum · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Obama got the Peace Prize from the Nobel committee, which is mostly Europeans. Most people on all political sides are still a bit confused as to why he won that thing, beyond it just being a kinda silly symbolic act. People on both sides overracted to Obama's election. There were the ignorant liberals who believed that Obama's presidency was gonna do stuff like halt middle-east conflict and put an end to racial inequality, and there were the ignorant conservatives who ran to gun stores in droves believing Gun-industry funded NRA scare campaigns saying Obama was gonna take their guns and they should all become preppers and build survival shelters.

    The trouble with Trump is that between his complete lack of experience in government, and his continued declarations of clearly unconstitutional ideas, he's an unknown. Most people don't have a reason to be terrified of anything, this is true. However, it gives people an opportunity to take stock of things and do a little risk assessment.

    In this case, I think it's a good move. Not because Trump will ruin the world, but becuase "Oh, hey, now that you mention it, all this really really important information in a single country is a pretty dumb move, because, laws and stuff can change."

  14. Re:Wrong by Verdatum · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Lincoln's actions were ruled unconstitutional in the US Circuit Court of Appeals, by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Lincoln just straight up IGNORED that ruling. And when people bitched about this, Lincoln had them thrown in prison too. Lincoln went on to throw a massive chunk of the Maryland Legislature in prison, just to keep them from voting, which is a MASSIVE stretch of the concept of "rebellion or invasion"

    The only reason Korematsu hasn't been overturned is that it hasn't come under judicial review. The actual conviction was overturned in 1983 because the government knowingly submitted false information. The Department of Justice issued a notice confirming that the solicitor general at the time was in error. If the ruling were to come under review, it's generally agreed that it would be overturned. Instead of explicitly overturning it, it just never gets cited as president.

    Even if Korematsu vs. the United States was initially ruled unconstitutional, the president still would've had the power to set up the camps until that ruling (and the other before it) told him to knock it off. That's the concern.