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Hm, what's that Carl Sagan quote, "They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." Brewster Kahle's vision for the Internet Archive as an electronic repository for human knowledge is the former. His belief that he can just blithely tussle with the entire copyright regime in such a half-cocked manner is the latter. You should not confuse folly for audacity. Especially when it might completely jeopardize the former.


I'll believe it when the pragmatic someone will replicate the Archive in all but ebook lending. Exactly zero of these wise men have done anything which is what I expect from those who speak who never do.


Slavish "the man in the arena" worship isn't particularly audacious. Unquestioning support for audacity for the sake of it speaks to lack of discernment. And to parrot a HN truism- a failure to account for survivor bias.

By all means, romanticize recklessness even when it results in self-defeating catastrophe. Yet there are plenty of other worthier figures to lionize and archives to patronize- Alexandra Elbakyan and Sci-Hub, the anonymous samizdat dissidents and LibGen.


It's not worship. It's an observation. Those who talk, say they would stop at a precise stopping point, but they never start. Those who do, almost always overshoot this precise stopping point that the talkers refer to. An IA that has the precise stopping point is possible today. But zero people have made it. This is not unique.

In fact, I'll tell you what, you make it and I will dedicate my ArchiveTeam Warrior to your project instead for a year.


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You don't have to play the part of a disgruntled groupie that hard. Perhaps we can talk once you've calmed down a little, but now seems like a bad time.


You guys both broke the site guidelines in this tit-for-tat spat. Please avoid those in the future. It's not what this site is for, destroys what it is for, and is tedious.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


As before,

Great! Until then, I will simply accept that you are someone with valid fears, but based on your insistence on ignoring abundant evidence, is arguing on bad faith.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24713508


You guys both broke the site guidelines in this tit-for-tat spat. Please avoid those in the future. It's not what this site is for, destroys what it is for, and is tedious.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


Happy to comply even if the other party does not




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