The Internet Archive was founded to be a repository of the world’s information as it appears on the world wide web. As an organisation it is solely devoted to this cause, and not to the pursuit of profit. Future generations will have access to a resource that would’ve seemed inconceivable even a couple of decades ago. A historian could readily access reams of first hand information on an event, without recourse to retellings which only contain a kernel of truth. However, what has shocked me is how relevant the internet archive is today. I am a keen blogger, and I find the blogosphere offers a rich selection of source material with which to illustrate my own writing. The internet has fostered an attitude of share and share alike, resulting in a number of different licenses with which someone can issue their work. The trouble is, these are little understood. When someone posts a photo on Flickr, or a document on Scribd, or any other such service, they are asked which license they’d like to use. Flickr offers the following:

1. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons
2. Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons
3. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons
4. Attribution Creative Commons
5. Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons
6. Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons

I generally issue my own work under the second license. This is largely because I’m an amateur writer, and seeming as I don’t rely on it to make a living, I’m happy for people to share it as freely as they like. But what if my work was to receive a sudden surge in popularity (bear with me!)? Then I’d be more inclined to protect my work, and perhaps I’d change the license. All services I have encountered allow users to do this. But this is quite problematic. What if somebody else has used my work in a way that they considered fair use? When the license change takes effect, they are in a grey area. I’m sure that if you could prove that the source work originally allowed derivatives then you’d be OK. But this is only possible by winding back the clock. Fortunately, this is what the Internet Archive allows you to do. Without such a service there would be bedlam, with every license change potentially having considerable knock on effects for derivative works. So, far from the Internet Archive being something for the future, it has very real relevance now, and its a larger player in the Creative Commons revolution than people give it credit for.