A coalition of major record labels has filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive—demanding **$700 million** for our work preserving and providing access to historical 78rpm records. These fragile, obsolete discs hold some of the earliest recordings of a vanishing American culture. But this lawsuit goes far beyond old records. It’s an attack on the Internet Archive itself.
This lawsuit is an **existential threat** to the Internet Archive and everything we preserve—including the **Wayback Machine**, a cornerstone of memory and preservation on the internet.
**At a time when digital information is disappearing, being rewritten, or erased entirely, the tools to preserve history must be defended—not dismantled.**
This isn’t just about music. It’s about whether future generations will have access to knowledge, history, and culture.
