Controlling the Internet Archive ("Wayback Machine") + Jay Ward

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: July 13, 2005 12:58:25 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Controlling the Internet Archive ("Wayback Machine") + Jay Ward


Dave,

The Internet Archive includes some terrific services and archives
(the Prelinger "ephemeral" film collection is a particular favorite
of mine).  However, their "Wayback Machine" with its vast collection
of past versions of Web site pages has a number of quite problematic
aspects relating to copyrights, site content control, and related
issues.

Rather than get into those details here (I'd be glad to chat about
them with anyone interested), I'll just point out that Web sites
can choose to exclude themselves from that collection.  Whether or
not it should be necessary to "opt-out" rather than "opt-in" is a
different and important question, of course.

To block the Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine" archive spider from
scanning your site, which will also block public access to any
material from your site that has *already* been collected by their
system, basically all that you need to do is put:

   User-agent: ia_archiver
   Disallow: /

in the appropriate "robots.txt" file(s) for those sites.  Site
administrators will know how to create and maintain this file.
I have chosen to implement this blocking for all sites and domains
that I operate, and have been doing so for quite some time.  Again,
I'd be happy to discuss the reasons for this with interested parties.

I must digress for one minute.  "Wayback Machine" is a great name.
I'm sure that the late Bill Scott, the voice of "Mr. Peabody" from
the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of the animated Jay Ward
series "Rocky and His Friends" -- the "inventor" of the original
"Wayback Machine" from the series -- would have been thrilled to see
the name preserved in this way.

I met Bill (also the voice of "Bullwinkle") when he and June Foray
(the voice of "Rocky the Flying Squirrel") attended a "Jay Ward Film
Festival" that I held here in L.A. more than 23 years ago.  They and
other guests performed a full "Rocky and Bullwinkle" script (June
and Bill provided most of the voices on the show) and engaged in a
lengthy Q&A session about the show, and the past and future of
television.  Most of their predictions turned out to be right on the
mark.

I recorded that fascinating hour-long session with them at the time,
and it turned out to apparently be the only audio record of them
together at a public event.  I've long had this recording available
online.  Fans of the show and the merely curious can visit:

http://www.vortex.com/av#JayWard1

for a fun way to spend an hour.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
  - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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