Internet Archive at Risk of Being Blocked in Russia

October 16, 2019

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The Internet Copyright Protection Association (“AZAPI”), an anti-piracy group that represents the rights of authors, has asked for the Internet Archive (the “Archive”) to be blocked by Internet Service Providers in Russia.

The Archive is a non-profit, U.S.-based digital library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Founded in 1996, the Archive is an important part of the Internet, in part because of its Wayback Machine, which has amassed over 350 billion webpages, 20 million books and texts, and four million videos.

Lawsuits have been brought by the rights holders of two audiobooks that are hosted on the site. Recently, the Moscow City Court ruled in favor of the rights holders, ordering the Archive to stop allowing access to the audiobooks in question. The decision has been appealed.

It remains to be seen whether the Moscow court will order the Archive to be permanently blocked. Similar platforms have already been blocked in Russia, including Sci-Hub, a large online library of research papers that has been described as “The Pirate Bay of Science”.

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Authors: Larissa Fulop and Matt McDonald