Locking down the Library: How Copyright, Contract, and Cybertrespass Block Internet Archiving

Internet archiving has kept millions of websites from disappearing completely. Yet this ambitious effort, the largest archiving project in history, is neither legal nor comprehensive. Archives are rampant copyright infringers with no recourse to traditional library and affirmative defenses. Further, sophisticated authors have started "protecting" their creations with restrictive contracts, technical restrictions, and the shaky cybertrespass doctrine.

Our legal regime has strayed from the constitutional values underlying copyright. Despite the social value in preserving cultural expression, the law has evolved to encompass a de facto right to withdraw and opt out of history itself.