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An update on Wayback Machine access

685 points · 362 comments · ChrisArchitect

  1. simonw · · focus · HN ↗
    > Here’s what’s going on. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has been hit by waves of high-volume automated traffic, and we’ve put protections in place to keep the service running.

    I'm pretty certain this is scrapers that are trying to workaround blocks on accessing original sites by hitting the Wayback Machine copy instead. Appalling behavior.

    In addition to the load it puts on this vital non-profit piece of Internet infrastructure, we've also already seen some sites opt out of the Wayback Machine to prevent their content from being scraped via this alternative route.

    1. matt_heimer · · focus · HN ↗
      I wonder if the entire internet is going to slowly move behind logins and allow lists for specific trusted crawlers at some point.

      Open access doesn't seem sustainable.

      But I might just grumpy about spending another hour this week adjusting rules to prevent bots.

      1. intrasight · · focus · HN ↗
        Rather than logins or regional filters, how about they just be a content provider to local libraries and perhaps use an app like Libby.
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