Internet Archive celebrates 25 years, seeks funds amid new legal challenges
Housed in a former Christian Science Temple, the Internet Archive is very much a secular temple to the internet.
The San Francisco-based Internet Archive celebrates 25 years preserving the history of the internet, TV, and radio broadcasts. It is currently storing 475 billion web pages, 28 million scans of books and texts, and 14 million audio recordings -- adding up to 30 petabytes of data and beyond.
The Internet Archive has collected writings from more than one hundred million people so far. Brewster Kale, the Internet Archive's founder, says the organization's goal is to reach one billion individuals.
"Now more than ever before, we need your help to continue collecting, preserving, and sharing our digital cultural artifacts," writes Kale. "We can have platforms and systems that are driven by altruism, not advertising models. We can have a world with many winners, where people participate, learn, and find new communities."
There is currently a two-to-one matching offer for donations to the nonprofit organization. A $10 donation, for example, will raise a total of $30 with matching funds.
The Internet Archive is currently fighting a legal challenge from four large publishers over its ability to lend out more digital copies of a book than it has physical copies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is helping with a legal defense.