Since then, journalists, digital rights advocates, historians, librarians, and researchers have raised alarms about the long-term consequences of limiting web preservation.

What is the Wayback Machine?

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit research library with a mission of providing Universal Access to All Knowledge. The Wayback Machine is a service of the Internet Archive that allows people to visit archived versions of web pages. The Wayback Machine has been archiving the web since 1996, helping preserve the historical record of the internet. Learn more about the Wayback Machine.

Why are publishers blocking the Wayback Machine?

As reported by journalists Andrew Deck and Hanaa’ Tameez in Nieman Lab, publishers say they are concerned about AI scraping and unauthorized reuse of their content by generative AI companies.

Some organizations have responded by broadly blocking web archiving systems like the Wayback Machine out of concern that archived material could be accessed or reused by AI systems.

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, published a video explaining why The Atlantic has blocked the Wayback Machine from preserving its web content, saying:

“[The Wayback Machine] is an amazing resource…But, on the other hand, if you put everything up there, it will all not only go into the big AI companies, but to everybody who’s building some kind of subsidiary AI.”

But those concerns are unfounded, explains journalist Andrew Deck in an interview with Marketplace Tech:

“I think it’s important to say that in our conversations with news publishers, a lot of them were taking this action preemptively out of a fear of proxy scraping rather than direct evidence that it has happened to them already. None of the publishers were able to point to a particular AI company or other kinds of direct evidence that their content had already been scraped by the Wayback Machine.”

Michael Nelson, a computer scientist at Old Dominion University, has described the Wayback Machine and web archiving as “collateral damage” as content owners restrict access over AI scraping concerns. 

That sentiment was echoed by Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine, on the Future Knowledge podcast episode, “Preserving the Web in the Age of AI”:

“The Wayback Machine is collateral damage caught up in the conflict between AI companies and publishers.”

Who uses the Wayback Machine?

The Wayback Machine is widely used by journalists, fact-checkers, researchers, lawyers, courts, librarians, academics, and even publishers themselves.

More than 100 news articles every month reference, cite, or rely on material preserved by the Wayback Machine to verify claims, recover deleted information, or provide historical context.

In a Future Knowledge podcast interview, Mark Graham recalled a conversation at The New York Times:

“A senior researcher came up to me and said, ‘Oh my God, Mark, thank you so much for the Wayback Machine. We use you all the time. There is material available that we’ve used from the Wayback Machine that we can’t even find in our own archives.’”

Journalist Rachel Maddow also publicly defended the archive:

“The Internet Archive is a national treasure. I use it daily, and have for many, many years. I cannot imagine doing the work I do without it.”

What are critics saying about the blocking?

A broad coalition of journalists, digital rights advocates, and internet historians has warned that blocking the Wayback Machine—and web archiving tools like it—could have serious long-term consequences.

In Techdirt, Mike Masnick argued that publishers may regret these blocking decisions because they undermine preservation of the public record.

Joe Mullin, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, similarly warned that blocking the Internet Archive “won’t stop AI” but could erase important historical records from the web.

Meanwhile, coverage by journalist Kate Knibbs in Wired brought broader public attention to the issue and the risks facing digital preservation infrastructure.

Have journalists spoken out in support of the Wayback Machine?

Yes.

More than 200 journalists signed a public statement applauding the Internet Archive’s role in preserving the public record.

In response, Mark Graham published a public thank-you letter:

“Your support for the Wayback Machine sends a clear message: preserving the record matters.”

Does the Internet Archive respect publisher concerns?

Yes.

The Internet Archive works with publishers and rights holders to balance preservation, access, and responsible stewardship of digital materials.

What about AI scraping?

As Mark Graham explained in Techdirt:

“The Wayback Machine is built for human readers. We use rate limiting, filtering, and monitoring to prevent abusive access, and we watch for and actively respond to new scraping patterns as they emerge.”

What’s at stake when publishers block the Wayback Machine?

Every day that preservation systems are blocked leaves holes in the public record of the web. If preservation systems are weakened or blocked at scale, future generations will lose access to major parts of our digital history.

The size of the problem is significant. A 2024 study by Pew Research Center found that 38% of webpages from 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later, with roughly a quarter of pages sampled across the decade disappearing entirely. But loss on the web is not inevitable. New analysis by Internet Archive data scientist Sawood Alam found that the Wayback Machine has preserved roughly 15% of those otherwise vanished pages, saving reporting, citations, and pieces of the historical record that would no longer exist online.

As Mike Masnick wrote in Techdirt: “Blocking the Internet Archive isn’t going to stop AI training. What it will do is ensure that significant chunks of our journalistic record and historical cultural context simply… disappear.”

And as Mark Graham wrote:

“Preserving the public record is not optional. It is essential infrastructure for a functioning democracy.”

Chronological Reading List of Key Articles

• Deck, Andrew, and Hanaa’ Tameez. “News Publishers Limit Internet Archive Access Due to AI Scraping Concerns.” Nieman Journalism Lab, January 28, 2026. https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news-publishers-limit-internet-archive-access-due-to-ai-scraping-concerns/
• Masnick, Mike. “News Publishers Are Now Blocking the Internet Archive and We May All Regret It.” Techdirt, February 13, 2026. https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/13/news-publishers-are-now-blocking-the-internet-archive-and-we-may-all-regret-it/
• Graham, Mark. “Preserving The Web Is Not The Problem. Losing It Is.” Techdirt, February 17, 2026. https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/17/preserving-the-web-is-not-the-problem-losing-it-is/
• Greene, Denny. “Blocking the Internet Archive Won’t Stop AI, but It Will Erase the Web’s Historical Record.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 4, 2026. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/blocking-internet-archive-wont-stop-ai-it-will-erase-webs-historical-record
• Knibbs, Kate. “The Internet’s Most Powerful Archiving Tool Is in Peril.” WIRED, April 13, 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/the-internets-most-powerful-archiving-tool-is-in-mortal-peril/
• Thompson, Nicholas. “How the Bot Battle Could Imperil the Wayback Machine.” The Most Interesting Thing in Tech, April 20, 2026. Via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUiFfxPgFeM 
• Internet Archive. “FAQ: Publishers Blocking the Wayback Machine.” Internet Archive Help Center. Last updated May 19, 2026. https://help.archive.org/help/faq-publishers-blocking-the-wayback-machine/
• Deck, Andrew, and Hanaa’ Tameez. “More than 340 Local News Outlets Are Limiting the Internet Archive’s Access to Their Journalism.” Nieman Journalism Lab, May 20, 2026. https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/05/more-than-340-local-news-outlets-are-limiting-the-internet-archives-access-to-their-journalism/.

FIRST PUBLISHED: May 15, 2026 CDF
LAST UPDATED: June 26, 2026 CDF

Yes, the Internet Archive has an onion address. The Internet Archive can be accessed via the Tor network at its onion address: archivep75mbjunhxc6x4j5mwjmomyxb573v42baldlqu56ruil2oiad.onion

What is an onion address?

Tor (The Onion Router) is a privacy-focused network that helps protect users’ identities and browsing activity by routing traffic through encrypted layers. Visiting the Internet Archive through Tor allows users to explore the Wayback Machine, books, audio, video, and other collections with an added layer of anonymity, which is an important option for researchers, journalists, and anyone seeking greater privacy or access in regions where the open web may be restricted.

1. Why did Internet Archive pursue becoming a federal depository library?
   • This is the culmination of years of work building Democracy’s Library, a free, open, online collection of government research and publications from around the world. As Brewster Kahle, digital librarian of the Internet Archive, explained to KQED:
     
     “By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that it’s more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive, to then be made available to the patrons of the Internet Archive or partner libraries.”
     
2. What does the FDLP designation mean for Internet Archive in practical terms?
   • It means that Internet Archive will get more documents from the Government Publishing Office and from other FDLP partner libraries that we will preserve, digitize (if in physical form), and make available through archive.org. Internet Archive currently receives donations of government documents from libraries, but there are some materials that can only be donated to other FDLP libraries. By being part of the program, Internet Archive can now work with those libraries, and GPO directly, to preserve, digitize, and provide access to even more public information.
     
3. How are FDLP designations made?
   • Libraries can become part of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) in two main ways. First, some libraries are designated by law—for example, land grant universities automatically qualify. Second, members of Congress can designate libraries in their district or state to join the FDLP, as long as there’s a vacancy and the library can show it’s capable of serving the public’s need for access to government information. The Internet Archive was designated as a federal depository library on July 24, 2025, by Senator Alex Padilla of California.
     
4. Does this mean the government owns the Wayback Machine?
   • No. Becoming a Federal Depository Library does not give the government any ownership of or control over the Wayback Machine or the Internet Archive’s collections. The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is a voluntary partnership that helps libraries provide free public access to government publications. The Internet Archive remains an independent, nonprofit research library, and continues to curate and operate its collections—including the Wayback Machine—on its own terms.
     
5. What does this designation mean for Internet Archive?
   • Becoming a member of the Federal Depository Library Program furthers Internet Archive’s mission to provide “Universal access to all knowledge.” It is the culmination of years of existing collaborations and partnerships with FDLP libraries. With our new designation as a federal depository library, we’re officially part of the national network that provides the public with free access to government publications. That means we can now acquire, preserve, and share even more official government documents—further expanding our collections and strengthening public access to government information.

In general, using Boolean Operators and doing fielded searches are your best bets.

Boolean Operators

The video above contains a quick explanation, but you can also read more about Boolean Operators elsewhere on the Internet. They are useful on archive.org, but you can use them in other search engines too. As a quick recap, the most common are:

• AND – narrows your search
• OR – widens your search
• AND NOT – excludes things from your search
• (  ) – parentheses can be used to group search terms
• ”  “ – double quotes will only return searches with an exact match for that phrase within
• [ ]  – square brackets can be used for ranges when ranges are allowed

Fielded Searches

If you would like to explore doing more fielded searches, use the Internet Archive metadata schema to figure out what fields you can search and what their values tend to look like. Here are some common fields you might want to search:

• title – the title of the work
  • e.g. title:”war and peace” will find items with the exact phrase “war and peace” in the title field
• subject – terms that describe the content of the work (also referred to as topics or keywords)
  • e.g. subject:mythology will find items with the word mythology in their subject fields
• creator – the person (or entity) that created the work, e.g. the author, director, conductor, etc.
  • e.g. creator:(Dickens AND Charles) will find all items with both Dickens and Charles in the creator field
• date – the date the work was published, often in YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD format
  • e.g. date:1922 will find all items with a publish date within the year 1922

• More than 500,000 books have been taken out of lending as a result of Hachette v. Internet Archive, the publishers’ lawsuit against our library, including more than 1,300 banned and challenged books.

Books that are shown as “Borrow Unavailable” mean they cannot be borrowed by our patrons, including books you may have previously read or consulted. 

In 2020, our library was sued by four of the world’s largest publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley—for lending books via the library practice known as controlled digital lending. That lawsuit, Hachette v. Internet Archive, is currently on appeal after the lower court (the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York) heard the case and ruled in favor of the publishers. In this decision against our library, Judge Koeltl issued an injunction that limits what we can do with our digitized books—namely, we can no longer lend those books to our patrons. The injunction does not affect our accessibility program—the removed books are still available to patrons with print disabilities.

Additionally, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the trade organization behind the lawsuit, worked with some of its member publishers (listed below) that were not named in the lawsuit to demand that we remove their books from our library.

As a result, more than 500,000 books in our collection are not currently available for borrowing, including more than 1,300 banned and challenged books. We understand that this is a devastating loss for our patrons. Fortunately, other countries and international library organizations are moving to support controlled digital lending. For inquiries, please contact patron services at info@archive.org.

Plaintiff Publishers

• Hachette Book Group
• HarperCollins
• Penguin Random House
• Wiley

Other Publishers Coordinated by the Association of American Publishers (AAP)

• American Chemical Society
• American Reading Company
• BiggerPockets Publishing
• Bloomsbury
• Bookpress Publishing
• Cambridge University Press
• Chronicle Books
• De Gruyter
• Elsevier
• Fordham University Press
• Getty Publications
• Hansen Publishing Group
• Harvard University Press
• Holiday House-Peachtree-Pixel+Ink
• Imbrifex Books
• Lynne Rienner Publishers
• Macmillan
• MedMaster
• Melville House Publishing
• Moody Publishers
• Pearson
• Princeton University Press
• Sage Publications
• Scholastic
• Simon & Schuster
• Springer
• Taylor & Francis
• Teacher Created Materials
• The American University in Cairo Press
• University of California Press
• University of Chicago Press
• University of Massachusetts Press
• University of Minnesota Press
• University of Texas Press
• University of Wisconsin Press
• University Press of Colorado
• Valancourt Books
• W. W. Norton & Company
• Wesleyan University Press
• Wolters Kluwer
• Yale University Press

Adding items to a list

1. Go to the item’s detail page.
2. Click or tap the “Add to list” button underneath the top theater section.
3. Choose a list to add the item to by clicking or tapping on it. To create a new list and add the item to it, click or tap “Create new list” and enter the list information.

Removing items from a list

An item can be removed from a list either from the item’s detail page or from the “My Lists” page.

From the detail page

1. Click or tap the “Add to list” button.
2. Find the checkmarked list that the item is to be removed from, and click or tap on that list.

From the “My Lists” page

1. Go to your Profile Page > My Lists.
2. Select the list in the left column from which the item is to be removed.
3. When the list contents are displayed, click or tap “Remove items…” in the top right list of actions.
4. Select the item or items to be removed from that list.
5. Click or tap “Okay”.

Managing lists

To manage your lists, go to your Profile Page > My Lists. There you can:

• View all your lists
• Edit the information for any of your lists
• Create a new list
• Delete a list
• Remove items from a list

Creating a new list

1. Click or tap “Add list” in the left column.
2. Enter a name for the list and optionally, a description. If you would like to prevent others from seeing your list, mark it as Private.
3. Click or tap “Save”.

You can now add items to this list from any item detail page.

Editing a list

1. Select a list to edit by clicking or tapping on the list name in the left column.
2. Click or tap the pencil icon in the main pane to the right of the list name.
3. Edit the list properties and click “Save”.

Deleting a list

1. Select a list to edit by clicking or tapping on the list name in the left column.
2. Click or tap the trash can icon at the edge of the screen to the right of the list name.
3. Click “Delete” to confirm the deletion.

Removing items from a list

1. Select a list to edit by clicking or tapping on the list name in the left column.
2. Click or tap “Remove items” from the list of actions at the top right.
3. Select the items to delete by clicking or tapping on their tiles. A checkmark will be displayed in the top right corner of the tile for each item to be deleted.
4. After all desired tiles have been selected, click or tap “Remove selected items”.
5. On the subsequent confirmation dialog box, click or tap “Remove items” to confirm the deletion.

How is it Playing Arcade Games in my Browser?
The Internet Arcade uses a program called JSMESS, which is a Javascript port of the MESS and MAME emulator projects. MESS/MAME have been developed over nearly 20 years and are able to emulate hundreds of computer systems and thousands of console and arcade games. A volunteer group has been able to convert MESS/MAME into pure Javascript and make it run in most modern browsers.

What Plugins are Needed?
There are no plugins needed to run the Internet Arcade. It uses 100% Javascript (not to be confused with Java), which is a scripting module inside all modern browsers that has great flexibility for running code, playing sound and video, and doing everything necessary to provide an arcade game in a window. Ironically, if the system is not working for you, a plugin may be preventing it: there are a number of plugins, such as NoScript, which automatically turn off Javascript processing for a site and require you to turn it back to run. If that is the case, the Arcade will not function – please enable Javascript on archive.org to run the Arcade.

How do I Play a Game on the Arcade?
In each entry for a game on the Arcade, you are taken to a page with a description of the game, and a screenshot in the right-hand corner of the gameplay. A line underneath the screenshot says “Run an in-browser emulation of the program”. You can click on the screenshot or the word “Run” to go to the Player page. On the Player page, you are shown a box and underneath it controls for Fullscreen, Mute/Unmute, Dark Background, and possibly others. Inside the box, there should be a MAME or MESS logo. Clicking inside this box, or hitting the spacebar, should start a disk icon spinning and the program will load. When the program is finished loading, the disk icon will stop spinning and the box will expand out to the resolution of the given program. At this point, the arcade machine will begin running. If you do not see the MESS/MAME logo, the program will not start. See other FAQ questions for possible solutions to this problem.

I Don’t See Anything in the Box.
If you do not see a MAME/MESS logo in the box above the “Fullscreen, Dark Background, Mute” buttons on the player page, then JSMESS is not running in your browser for some reason. Some possible reasons to investigate:

Are you running a script blocker like NoScript, that blocks Javascript?
Does your browser have Javascript disabled?
JSMESS can take a few seconds to load – wait 30 seconds to see if the logo appears.
JSMESS generally runs in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, IE and Safari. Are you running a different browser than these?
Is your browser a recent version? JSMESS prefers browsers from the last few months (although it should run, albeit poorly, in earlier versions).
Are you low on memory? Disk space?
If none of these seem to apply, contact us with your setup and situation as you see it.
I Don’t Hear Any Sound.

For reasons that we will explain, sound is muted by default on JSMESS. To enable sound, you (currently) need to start a program (i.e., click on the logo), wait for the arcade machine to start, and then hit the “Unmute” button at the bottom of the running game. This will set a cookie for “Unmute” and after you hit Refresh (F5) on your browser, all later games will have sound. We are aware this is clunky, and intend to rewrite our Player to more intuitively work in the future.

The Sound Sounds Horrible/Scratchy/Distorted!
The JSMESS program uses a standard called “Web Audio” that is still in its early stages – as a result, the JSMESS program is extremely burdensome to this standard, and unless your machine is very fast and the arcade game being run a simpler one, the sound can easily distort, even when doing something like switching between tabs or moving the mouse! This is why the program is, by default, muted. As of November, 2014, a new Web Audio specification has been proposed that allows Javascript programs like JSMESS to run audio more dependably, as we expect for sound and video, and the committees in charge of this specification are very aware of JSMESS as a real-world example of how to improve their specification. We currently can only wait, at which point newer versions of browsers will have much better sound. Sometimes, a refresh/restart of the arcade player page will bring the sound back into shape, for at least a while.

Why did the Arcade Game start with All Sorts of Weird Graphics?
The JSMESS system provides an as-accurate-as-possible presentation of an arcade machine when it is powered on. A large amount of arcade machines had “boot-up” or “checksum” sequences, where they would show a variety of messages and graphics to indicate the state and quality of the machine. If a ROM chip failed, or a circuit had burned out, various error messages would show and the arcade machine owner or operator would have to do hardware repairs. This situation continues in the emulations, although the machines are generally not going to blow a fuse or lose hardware. That said, there are a very small number of machines that will start up, and then sit at a cryptic operations message, or be awaiting a key. Where possible, the instructions underneath the game’s video window will give information on what key or keys to press to have the game continue to boot up properly.

At the bottom it mentions a Gamepad. Do I need a Gamepad?
Every arcade game can be played using your keyboard; no gamepad or joysticks are needed. That said, it is possible under some circumstances to hook a USB Gamepad to your computer and have it recognized.

What about IP addresses?
SFLan uses real, routable IP addresses. These are usually given out dynically via DHCP. The nodes themselves use static addresses. We can also assign static addresses for servers. For the techies: We use tunneling, layer 2 and layer 3 bridging in parts on the network to make it all appear as a “flat” LAN. There are pros and cons about this approach. It has worked best for us so far. However, it is a moving target, and might change in the future.

I still have more questions, what should I do?
SFLan is a work in progress. If you have more questions, try the SFLan forum. If you still need help, write to info at archive dot org.

I live at 123 Main St at Crossing; do I have line of sight access to a node?
You can try netstumbler or kismet to look for a SFLan ssid.

What is the cost of a node?
The nodes cost $1100, which includes the price of parts and installation. Discounts are potentially available depending on the location.

How can I get a node?
Send an email with your name, exact address and phone number to info at archive dot org. Be sure to write “SFLan node” (or something similar) in the subject line. The information will be passed on to our fantastic installation team who will contact you.

If I get a node, can my neighbors connect also?
Yes, a SFLan node can connect your neighbors and co-condo association members.

What is included in the node?
Most of our nodes are composed of two radios, but some have three. The components are in a weather tight box with a four foot coax cable and two antennas attached. The whole unit is mounted on your roof (generally) on a pole. There is a picture of our lovely 5’3″ spokesmodel holding one here: http://www.archive.org/iathreads/uploaded-files/AstridB-PICT0017.JPG

What are the power requirements of a node?
A node takes on average 5 watts.

What are the connection characteristics of the network?
There are no average characteristics, but 2MBs shared among 20 or so people would be an example.

What is the percentage of uptime?
SFLan is an experimental network, so the uptime varies. Right now uptime averages around 90% or more.

The Grateful Dead is separated from the Live Music Archive into its own collection (with its own forum) to avoid confusion about lossless availability. The metadata and reviews for shows and recordings, even those not available for regular download, will remain available for those who maintain direct links. No filesets have been deleted from the Archive; certain items are simply not public now. Text files are available at a separate database.

At this time, the Grateful Dead collection is not open to public uploads. The Grateful Dead Internet Archive Project (GDIAP) will continue its direct management of this collection for the time being.

As far as we know, there has been no change to standard GD fan trading. It is common for bands to have policies that differ between fan trading, versus archiving here.

How do I search by date, by year?
On the Collection page you will see the years in the right hand column. Clicking them launches searches for those years.

Where is “on this day in history”?
You can find this in the About tab.

What are some not even available as stream only?
Shows that have been released commercially are not available.

Where is the recording information?
If that information is in an item you will be able to see it on the details page. Recording metadata may include details page you may include: Source – the path from original source to final file format Taped by – the original taper Transferred by – the person(s) who processed the audio to the final file that was uploaded

Why can’t I upload to the Grateful Dead collection?
At this time uploads by the public are prohibited at the request of the band.