David Samuel, a violist with the San Francisco-based Alexander Quartet, nearly didn't make it to the United States due to visa complications. As a Canadian citizen, he needed a work visa, which required proof of his significant contributions to his field. Unfortunately, most of the necessary documentation had vanished from the internet. Then someone recommended the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Using it, Samuel found every concert program, interview, and article he needed, ultimately securing his visa.
The Wayback Machine has been archiving the web since 1996. Mark Graham, its director, describes it as a "time machine for the web," capturing and storing hundreds of millions of web pages daily. To date, nearly 900 billion web pages have been archived. Computer scientist Brewster Kahle, the creator of the Wayback Machine, notes the short lifespan of web pages, averaging only about 100 days before being changed or deleted.
About a million people use the Wayback Machine daily, including journalists, fact-checkers, politicians, policymakers, and students. It's free and public, accessible via archive.org. Users can see historical versions of websites, such as The New York Times in 1996 or Netflix when it was a DVD-by-mail company.
Kahle launched the Wayback Machine as part of the nonprofit Internet Archive. The archive's San Francisco headquarters, housed in a former Christian Science Church, features original pews, statues of past employees, and numerous servers. These servers contain just one copy of the Internet Archive, with multiple copies stored to ensure safety.
Kahle's ambition extends beyond the web; he aims to archive all published works of humankind. This includes old music, video games, TV shows, and books. Everything backed up is made freely available online, including obscure items like vintage game shows, knitting magazines, and pet rock manuals. Users can even check out scanned books as if from a library.
However, this endeavor has led to legal challenges. Book publishers sued the Internet Archive over its practice of lending scanned books, and music publishers are suing for $400 million. If these cases are lost, it could spell the end of the Internet Archive. The Association of American Publishers, in a statement to "CBS Sunday Morning," argued there is no legal justification for copying and distributing millions of copyrighted books without permission. Kahle sees this as a fight for public access to knowledge, believing publishers aim to prevent public libraries from owning anything at all. The publishers won their lawsuit, and Kahle has filed an appeal. The record companies' lawsuit is still pending.
In a positive turn, David Samuel received his green card in September, partly thanks to the Wayback Machine's archives.
More: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-wayback-machine-a-time-machine-for-the-web/
