The internet has more content than a human could experience, but much is already lost! This is especially true for movies. Most early films were lost decades ago, but with modern technology we don’t need to lose any more.
What is the Internet Archive?
The Internet Archive is a digital library founded by Brewster Kahle in 1996. The Internet Archive aims to provide free access to all knowledge by collecting and preserving digital content, including websites, books, software, music and more.
The Internet Archive began as a way to preserve and make accessible the rapidly growing amount of digital content on the Internet. It began using web crawlers to collect and archive websites and created a digital version of the “Wayback Machine” that allowed users to see what a website looked like at a given point in time. Over time, the Internet Archive has expanded to include various digital media, including books, music, software, and video.
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Today, the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization supported by donations and grants. It continues to collect and preserve digital content and make it available to the public free of charge.
The Internet Archive is home to some true classic movies
The Internet Archive has a huge collection of films, including many classic, independent, and foreign films. Some of the most interesting and notable films preserved in the Internet Archive are:
These are just a few examples of the many fascinating and important films held at the Internet Archive. If you’re a movie buff, you can browse the Internet Archive’s collection to discover more hidden gems and classic movies. Not to mention lost episodes of TV shows or TV pilots that never made it to the big screen!
The archive goes far beyond films
As mentioned above, the Internet Archive has a large collection of other types of digital content besides movies. Some of the other types of content available on the Internet Archive include:
- Books: The Internet Archive has a collection of over 36 million books.
- Music: The Internet Archive has a collection of over two million music recordings, including recordings of live concerts, radio broadcasts, and other audio content.
- Software: The Internet Archive has a collection of over 950,000 software programs and games, including many classic and historical examples.
- Television: The Internet Archive has a collection of over three million television programs, including episodes of classic television shows, news programs and more.
- Websites: The Internet Archive has a collection of over 780 billion web pages, including many historical versions of websites.
- Audio Recordings: The Internet Archive has a collection of over 15 million audio recordings, including lectures, interviews, and other audio content.
- Images: The Internet Archive has a collection of over 4.5 million images, including photographs, illustrations and other visual media.
How is the Internet Archive legal?
The Internet Archive is essentially an online public library, operating within the confines of copyright law and working with rightsholders to ensure the content it collects and maintains is made legally available. In many cases, Internet Archive content is in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons or other open licenses that allow for free distribution and use.
Of course, intellectual property laws vary from country to country. Something that’s in the public domain in one nation may not be in yours. However, everything in the archive is legal within the jurisdiction from which it is operated.
This does not mean that the website will not be involved in legal disputes from time to time. For example, there are copyright owners who have legally challenged the Internet Archive’s “lending library” practices in relation to e-books. In general, as a website visitor, you don’t have to worry about this.
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There’s more movie magic out there
Certainly one of the largest media archives on the Internet, the Internet Archive is a crucial project in preserving films, television shows and many other media that would otherwise disappear. It’s a good thing, but if you love exploring the history of movies, especially recent ones, there are plenty of other hidden gem sites out there on the internet.
The Internet Archive is not the only library service on the Internet that offers films. If you have a library card from a participating library, you can stream ad-free movies for free on services like Hoopla and Kanopy.
Especially genre movie fans can access a lot of free content in popular genres like action movies, horror movies or something more festive. So if you’re scrolling through Netflix and can’t select anything, you might want to delve into the archives.
