The Internet Archive has set itself the task of archiving all kinds of digital content so that it does not fall into oblivion. Because this includes some old songs, there is now trouble with the music industry.
Image: Canva
With the Great 78 Project, the non-profit Internet Archive wants to preserve classic songs from 78 rpm records and store them in digital form for the future. Of course, this also includes many works by famous artists such as Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong. This is a big problem for the music industry.
Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other record labels have joined forces to jointly sue the Internet Archive and their ongoing project. In her opinion, the “Great 78 Project” is nothing more than an illegal record store.
A total of 2,749 copyright infringements are said to have been committed. And many of the songs offered have already been licensed for certain streaming services, according to the plaintiffs. Therefore, there is no reason to protect them in particular. The music industry is now demanding damages of up to 412 million US dollars for what it believes to be illegal content from the Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive was founded in 1996 and now includes more than 41 million books and texts, 8.4 million videos and films, 14.7 million audio files and 890,000 computer programs. A special flagship is the so-called Wayback Machine, which enables Internet users to travel back in time. The Wayback Machine lets you experience what websites looked like in the past. For example, this is what our blog looked like three years ago.
What: Reuters