See linked posting. I’ve commented there with a link to a CLI tool in Python that allows downloading of IA collections. I’ve submitted a patch to enable specifying start and end points so that it’s easier to resume downloading a huge collection, or to allow multiple people to split up the work.

https://archive.org/details/georgeblood

https://archive.org/details/78rpm_bowling_green

F*ck the RIAA and absurdly long copyright.


EDIT: There is more than one collection of 78s on IA, so I updated the title.


The issue with these collections are that they’re absolutely HUGE. And yes, IA offers torrents for them, but as a separate torrent for every. single. album. And the torrents have all data in them – FLAC, fixed-rate MP3, VBR MP3, PDF liner notes, etc. etc… there may be some extremely hardcore data-hoarders out there who want everything, but IMHO as these are scratchy old 78 records, FLAC is overkill to just save the audio in a listenable format. The George Blood collection, just the VBR MP3s, is looking to be about 6TB. With ALL data it might be over 40TB! I can’t afford that many hard drives :)


So, my approach at the moment is to save just the VBR MP3s (they seem to be done at up to 320kbps VBR) and the JPEG album cover. If I have a chance and any storage left afterwards, I can make a separate pass to get the album liner PDFs…


Tool used: https://github.com/jjjake/internetarchive


Patch to allow setting start and end item indices for downloads: https://github.com/jjjake/internetarchive/pull/605


Example usage to grab just the VBR MP3 and record label JPG for each (note the --start-idx and --end-idx arguments):

#ia download --start-idx=4001 --end-idx=8000 -a -i --format="VBR MP3" --format="JPEG" --search collection:georgeblood

I’m going to concentrate on the George Blood collection for now… I’m starting at item 1. It would be great if others started at index 50,000, 100,000, 150,000, … and others started at the end and worked backwards in similarly-sized chunks, so that it’s assured someone gets each of them.

  • Haui@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Probably stating the obvious but „are in no threat of being deleted“ is an absolute joke.

    A company holding the IP can just make it unavailable tormorrow. A big chunk of us is here because reddit somehow is allowed to delete our posts because the law is idiotic. At least european people are allowed to get their data but the cooperative works of thousands of people is threatened due to those laws.

    The concept of IP needs to be reformed.

    • As concrete examples, try to get a copy of Disney’s 1946 movie, “Song of the South.” It’s been removed from circulation because of its whitewashed presentation of “happy slaves.” Similarly, 6 of Dr. Seuss’ books, including “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” were withdrawn because of racial imagery (the mentioned book had a “Chinaman” drawn with a WWII stereotype style - rice hat, sloping eyes, buck teeth).

      There’s media you simply can’t get anymore.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah. And whenever anyone says “Oh the music companies would never let these old recordings die, it’s their bread and butter!” I give them this story.

      We cannot trust our cultural heritage to any one entity.

    • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Did you think your posts on Reddit were protected by copyright laws or something?

      Are you seriously comparing posts on a forum to music rights?

      • Haui@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        What exactly are you trying to convey? That these „works“ made by ordinary people who have only a basic understanding of copyright law should be deleted if someone feels like it? That the law is more important than justice?

        Also, do you really think you‘re cool by implying things phrased as a question? Won‘t you just talk like a normal person and state your opinion instead of fake-calling-out others?

        • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Posts you make on a forum are not “works” that are copyrightable. Deleting a post is not an injustice.

          Sentences phrased with a question mark means it’s asking a question. When someone asks a question, the normal response is to then provide an answer to that question.

          But you’re just being an asshole. You know exactly what I’m saying, and you know you’re saying ridiculous things so your only response is not answering either of the two questions and and then try to twist it.

          • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
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            1 year ago

            Posts you make on a forum are not “works” that are copyrightable.

            That may depend on the platform – slashdot (remember that site?) once upon a time had a footer on their pages stating “All posts belong to their authors”. There were a few big debates about that being legally enforceable. Hmm. I wonder if there ever was a legal ruling on that.

            I notice today their site does not have such a disclaimer. Probably disappeared long ago, due to one of their many corporate buyouts.

  • maudefi@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Cool tool! Please consider leaving GitHub for any of the numerous FOSS options.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh, it’s not my project – I already have moved my own projects off there, yeah.

      • maudefi@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s awesome! Really encouraging seeing projects and devs migrate away from closed-source and proprietary systems and features. 💪

        • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
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          1 year ago

          sourcehut, self-hosted Gogs or Forgejo are some good candidates. Gitea is popular, but there’s apparently been some drama about them going commercial without proper buy-in from their contributors. (The code lineage is AFAIK Gogs → Gitea → Forgejo).


          All the above solutions make it super-easy to mirror a github project as well, just in case it goes away :) Doing so has saved my arse more than a few times when github takes a repo down for stupid reasons.


          Mandatory plug for !selfhosted@lemmy.world :)

          Gitlab seems too heavyweight to me. I use Gogs myself on my home server. No code review tools via PR ala github/gitlab, but I don’t need those in my web frontend.

  • Cyb3rManiak@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Instructions unclear. Linked posting explains nothing. Will assume this is about 78 missing dragonballs and move on.

    Jokes aside, we must preserve the 78 collection. What if in the future an alien signal will reach earth and no one can understand it because all 78s are extinct? We don’t have Starfleet to go back in time and get a 78 from San Francisco in the past to save the future!

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      Aha! Well, coincidentally, a few weeks ago I just found out about another IA download tool for getting books that are hidden behind the borrow wall.

      DeGourou

      NOTE DeGourou is incompatible with the tool mentioned in my post here (Python library differences) so install it in a different account if you want to use both tools often. (Maybe someone more fluent in Python can find out why installing one breaks the other?)

      Now DeGourou seems to only download individual books. Would be great if it could be made to iterate over entire collections as well…