History Website / InternetArchive

* InformationWantsToBeFree: As explained by [[https://archive.org/details/SDForumBK this]] speech by none other than [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster%20Kahle the site's founder]] himself, this is essentially the entire ideology behind the Internet Archive -- and it shows. For example, once you upload something into their digital library, it technically doesn't belong to you anymore; this means that not only it will stay up even if you delete your account, but also that you can only delete it through a formal request, which can be declined. This is {{Averted}}, however, whenever UsefulNotes/{{copyright}} is brought up into the conversation, as the IA does ''not'' take any chances with the law and will remove anything from their archives upon a DMCA request.

The Wayback Machine also ''used'' to follow the robots exclusion standard, so if your favorite website (say, like Website/FanFictionDotNet, which actually ''did'' block its contents from being archived) blocked the Wayback Machine from saving it in its robots.txt file, then it and its content became inaccessible to the public. Infuriatingly enough, if the domain was taken over by a cybersquatter who then implemented a robots file, it also blocked you from seeing the earlier, legitimate versions of the website. However, the abuse of robots.txt by these cybersquatters led to so many defunct websites losing their previous archives that the Internet Archive themselves decided in April 2017 to stop broadly honoring the standard, now requiring explicit requests for exclusion. They also stopped honoring the standard for crawling and displaying U.S. government and military websites from December 2016 onwards (a month before UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump took office as [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates President of the United States]]).

* InformationWantsToBeFree: As explained by [[https://archive.org/details/SDForumBK this]] speech by none other than [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster%20Kahle the site's founder]] himself, this is essentially the entire ideology behind the Internet Archive -- and it shows. For example, once you upload something in the their digital library, it technically doesn't belong to you anymore; this means that not only it will stay up even if you delete your account, but also that you can only delete it through a formal request, which can be declined. This is {{Averted}}, however, whenever UsefulNotes/{{Copyright}} is brought up into the conversation, as the IA does ''not'' take any chances with the law and will remove anything from their archives upon a DMCA request.

%%* UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame: They have an official, staff-maintained [[https://archive.org/details/internetarcade collection]] of old arcade games from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. They managed to evade Copyright laws in this case since it's entirely non-profit.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Due to fears of Internet censorship in the US, a [[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/internet-freedom-wayback-machine-moving-copy-to-canada-donald-trump/ Canadian mirror of the Internet Archive was made]] and is being kept up to date so the site can [[{{Invoked}} Invoke]] this trope if necessary.

As for the Internet Archive's digital library, although it is by comparison a lesser-known feature, it is still by no means lacking in content, as it is not only where the Internet Archive hosts the films, photos, and books they've digitized (they ''are'' a library, after all), but also it's widely used by archival initiatives such as the Wiki/ArchiveTeam as well as various users eager to either submit cool videos and such they found throughout the web, or upload their content somewhere secure. In fact, even ''us'' at TV Tropes are beginning to enjoy using this feature, as it allows for us to post important videos and webcomics and such somewhere where they are guaranteed to stay (unlike, say, Google Drive or [=MediaFire=]). It also helps that image files hosted on the IA can be viewed as part of their "preview" feature, this makes the Internet Archive even ''more'' useful for archiving things like webcomics, as they can already be read there on a surprisingly readable format without actually having to download them.

Oh, and yes, the Internet Archive is also behind [[https://archive-it.org/ archive-it]] ('''not''' related to Wiki/ArchiveTeam), which is a paid subscription service that lets you run crawler projects of your own, which comes in handy if the site you want preserved isn't archived by the Wayback Machine for one reason or the other.

%%* SpeedRun: Not only does the Internet Archive's digital library contain a community-maintained [[https://archive.org/details/speed_runs Speedrun Collection]] with speedruns saved by users from all across the web, but also it's one of their featured i.e. most visited collections; appearing on their front page alongside their collections of [[https://archive.org/details/europeanlibraries works from European libraries]] and [[https://archive.org/details/internetarcade old arcade games]].

Here's how it works: After going to the Internet Archive's front page, users can paste a URL address on the input-box below the Wayback Machine logo and pressing "Enter". After that, the user is shown a calendar-like list of archived pages (provided there are any). Dates written on blue dots are links to versions of that particular page archived on that particular date. If a dot is orange, however, then it means that the URL was not found at the time of the snapshot, usually indicating the site was already gone by that time. Green dots, on the other hand, indicate that the URL led to a redirect.

The IA also takes no chances with the law, and so all requests by the copyright owners to remove data from the Wayback Machine are immediately obeyed. .

* BadFuture: As part of their 25th anniversary in 2021, the website created the "[[https://wayforward.archive.org/ Wayforward Machine]]" as a satirical depiction of what the internet might look like in another 25 years if efforts by powerful interests to restrict access to information aren't stopped. Depicting websites full of [[Crapsackworld censorship, spying, and paywalls]].

* BadFuture: As part of their 25th anniversary in 2021, the website created the "[[https://wayforward.archive.org/ Wayforward Machine]]" as a satirical depiction of what the internet might look like in another 25 years if efforts by powerful interests to restrict access to information aren't stopped. Depicting websites full of [[Crapshootworld censorship, spying, and paywalls]].

* BadFuture: As part of their 25th anniversary in 2021, the website created the "[[https://wayforward.archive.org/ Wayforward Machine]]" as a satirical depiction of what the internet might look like in another 25 years if efforts by powerful interests to restrict access to information aren't stopped.

The Wayback Machine also ''used'' to follow the robots exclusion standard, so if your favorite website (say, like Website/FanFictionDotNet, which actually ''did'' block its contents from being archived) blocked the Wayback Machine from saving it in its robots.txt file, then it and its content became inaccessible to the public. Infuriatingly enough, if the domain was taken over by a cybersquatter who then implemented a robots file, it also blocked you from seeing the earlier, legitimate versions of the website. However, the abuse of robots.txt by these cybersquatters led to so many defunct websites losing their previous archives that the Internet Archive themselves decided in April 2017 to stop broadly honoring the standard, now requiring explicit requests for exclusion. They also stopped honoring the standard for crawling and displaying U.S. government and military websites from December 2016 onwards (a month before UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump took office as [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President of the United States]]).

* CrapsackWorld: Their "[[https://wayforward.archive.org/ Wayforward Machine]]" depicts a future where access to knowledge is under threat, with public libraries being closed down and websites riddled with pop-ups.
%%* FilmNoir: [[https://archive.org/details/Film_Noir&tab=about This]] small, user-maintained collection is dedicated to making copies of such films from the 40s and 50s available through the Internet Archive. As of 2017, they currently have collected about 97 films, amomg them being ''Film/TheStranger'', ''Film/ScarletStreet'', ''Film/DeadOnArrival'', and ''Film/{{Suddenly}}''