In Part 2 of Traceroute’s season finale, we look at the fallout of the copyright infringement decision against The Internet Archive. If information eventually becomes commoditized, will we find someone to be a fair and responsible arbiter of history?
With nothing less than the future of our digitized history at stake, the final episode of Season 2 of Traceroute explores the threats and challenges the Internet Archive faces in the wake of its copyright infringement case. We are joined by Rebecca Tushnet, the Harvard Law professor who defended the Archive in the case, to discuss the potential fallout of the court’s ruling: are we moving towards a society where information is owned by an elite few and “rented out” at a price? If so, do we risk manipulation of that information for the sake of profit? Or will we find among our archivists, preservationists, librarians, and even activists a person who can be responsible enough to be dubbed “The Arbiter of History?”
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Traceroute is a podcast from Equinix, and is a production of Stories Bureau. This episode was produced by John Taylor, with help from Tim Balint and Cat Bagsic. It was edited by Joshua Ramsey and mixed by Jeremy Tuttle, with additional editing and sound design by Mathr de Leon. Our theme song was composed by Ty Gibbons.