Imagine a newspaper publisher announcing it will no longer allow libraries to keep copies of its paper. That’s effectively what’s begun happening online in the last few months. The Internet Archive—the world’s largest digital library—has preserved newspapers since it went online in the mid-1990s....
It’s not the public. It’s the corporate copyright and IP holders. Because why should preservation efforts be allowed when the rights holders are letting the IP rot, and sometimes actively deleting source code?
It’s not that Americans are against either of these per se; it’s that they’re indifferent. Ignoring people brainwashed by the right-wing propaganda against Wikipedia, sane Americans largely take Wikipedia for granted. I don’t mean that bitterly; I mean that it’s been there for 25 years, its quality is better than ever, finances are good, and everyday people therefore don’t consider how unstable its position really is, how much work there is to do, and how irreplaceable it is.
As for the IA, sample 1000 American adults. I’ll bet you five or fewer could tell you what the hell an “Internet Archive” is.
North America is Wikipedia’s largest funding source by a factor of more than 2. I’m not sure why you’re calling Americans out here.
Are you supposing that IA is better known in other countries than in the US? Are you basing that on anything?
Because the original comment (not made by me) was an appeal to Americans. The subsequent comment said it’s not the [American] public. Thus I’m specifically limiting what I’m saying to Americans, regardless of the relative extent to which it applies elsewhere. Because that’s whom the conversation – that I didn’t start – is about.
The rest of the conversation, though, was about a (mostly) exclusively American thing, relating to lobbying and legislation against Wikipedia and IA. I’ve got no problem with shitting on the US for things we’re actually doing, but saying the public doesn’t support Wikipedia when we’re actually the #1 supporter worldwide of Wikipedia feels kind of disingenuous.