2٠ On Sat, 7 Feb 2026 at 11:24 Caroline James-Garrod via Air-L < air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:٣؛

I actively use the Way Back Machine (an Internet Archive project), to obtain full pdf articles behind a paywall, be it The Guardian, The Atlantic or even the New Yorker. These are usually a pre-edited snapshot, which is sufficient for me and in fact much more interesting because sometimes you get to read sentences that the web editor chose to remove. Also the equivalent of Napster and Magnet Torrent of the late 90s in today’s world of YouTube shorts, Instagram /FB reels and news videos , are open source tools such as yt-dlp (formerly YouTube-dl). YouTube-dl GitHub was closed down in the pandemic when some political videos made it across platforms despite the original source removing them. But now yt-dlp is back and I can even download instagram/fb reels and news broadcasts embedded in websites that are designed to explicitly prevent downloading. Similarly I am sure a mirror of the Internet archive and way back machine will be accessible either using the Tor browser or an alternate DnS. Also extending Lili’s observation, when transparency/open access is introduced into a non neutral system, it will always used to disproportionately benefit those in power. I suspect newsrooms are more concerned about competitors reading their pre-published snapshots and producing similar content overnight, rather than ‘pirate’ consumers. Regards On Saturday, February 7, 2026, Lilly Irani via Air-L < air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

It reminds me of work on the commons and biopolitics / pharmaceuticals from the early 2000s. Anthropologists Cori Hayden and Kimberly Christen showed separately two days ago the way "openness" can be exploited by well equipped companies and governments. Hayden wrote about pharmaceutical companies exploiting biocommons in drug development in violation of indegenous rights and protocols. Christen wrote about Aboriginal people in Australia preventing their photos from being accessed outside of ethical protocols in museums, a violation of openness but an ethical choice.

I'm still an open access fan for publishing my own scholarly work *for people* but I do not believe Anthropic should train their AIs without asking.

In India, Anil Gupta developed a sharing license / patent for openness in farming where non-profit and small businesses could share intellectual property but large corporations have to pay the patent owners. This is not an unsolved problem.

On Fri, Feb 6, 2026 at 11:44 PM Caroline James-Garrod via Air-L < air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

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Thanks Tai. Very important to know.

Best wishes to you,

Caroline

Get Outlook for Android< https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg__;!!Mih3wA!C_ CoGqIMq2jeSbwHccYEuDlW9KRZODJyQLen-8GV4EBqNbkQhJ9L7Q8WQI98ZiOZpWX iKuINABfQVaOn$

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________________________________ From: Air-L <air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Tai Neilson via Air-L <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 7:38:18 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] News sites are locking out the Internet Archive to stop AI crawling. Is the ‘open web’ closing?

Dear AoIR community, Apologies for cross‑posting, but I wanted to share a recent article of mine in The Conversation: News sites are locking out the Internet Archive to stop AI crawling. Is the ‘open web’ closing?< https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://theconversation.com/ news-sites-are-locking-out-the-internet-archive-to-stop- ai-crawling-is-the-open-web-closing-274968__;!!Mih3wA!C_ CoGqIMq2jeSbwHccYEuDlW9KRZODJyQLen-8GV4EBqNbkQhJ9L7Q8WQI98ZiOZpWX iKuINABW53PCb$

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It addresses the further enclosure of the internet, commodification of publishers' archives as AI training data, and the resulting challenges for nonprofits and internet research. I hope you find it useful. Cheers, Tai

Tai Neilson, PhD Senior Lecturer in Media Major Coordinator of Journalism and Nonfiction Writing MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY NSW 2109 _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://aoir.org__;!!Mih3wA!C_ CoGqIMq2jeSbwHccYEuDlW9KRZODJyQLen-8GV4EBqNbkQhJ9L7Q8WQI98ZiOZpWX iKuINAKJmRHBl$ Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org__;!!Mih3wA!C_CoGqIMq2jeSbwHccYEuDlW9KRZODJy QLen-8GV4EBqNbkQhJ9L7Q8WQI98ZiOZpWXiKuINANEAmqcD$

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