October 14th 2024.
something on archiving
i believe education should be free and easily accessible to everyone. knowledge should not be gatekept behind paywalls or hoarded. education is the path to a liberated society, whether by holding people/structures accountable or by giving people the tools for independence. libraries are of course the embodiment of this belief so i obviously love them just for that reason. still, living in the U.S.- needing a mode of transportation (most likely a c*r) can be a barrier for access.
then there is, archive.org. archive is a fully digital library containing thousands of books, old unaccessible websites, movies, tv shows and articles. all thats needed to access this information is an internet connection then bam you're in. however, recently, (i think last week) the website was breached and information regarding its users was stolen. The site is still currently down and with the recent loss of its appeal in court, the future remains uncertain. which has got me thinking about the importance of physical media again.
We don’t own much of anything anymore. All the shows/movies we watch, the music we listen to, and sometimes even the books we read, are stored on subscription streaming services. Which when on these streaming services, are still susceptible to being abruptly removed or flip-flopping from service to service. Or with the case of some series, “Infinity Train” as an example, they can be fully erased from these services and cannot even be bought physically. When this happens they can only be viewed “illegally”.
The thought that all of this information and art could be so easily lost by some security breach or from some business deciding it’s not profitable kind of terrifies me.
From this, I have felt the urge to begin a collection of my own. A collection of both physical and digital (USBs, CDs, etc) storing movies, books, music, articles, or papers I find interesting. I am of course only one person, with not that much time or money on their hands but I think it could be useful still. Or maybe this is the origin of me becoming a packrat and wasting a lot of space in my future home. Still I’d be interested in storing the digital pieces on a website maybe. I’m not sure of the legality of it but if it’s just for myself and giving people access I’m not sure if it’s a problem in the same way. I don’t know.