The government of India has blocked Archive.org thanks to a complaint by two Bollywood studios.
Prakash Jha Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment chose to target infringing copies of their movies, through the High Court of the Judicature at Madras, rather than sending the Internet Archive a takedown notice.
Archive.org responded to the incident:
“After a preliminary review, we find no instance of our having been contacted by anyone at all about these films. Is there a specific claim that someone posted these films to archive.org? If so, we’d be eager to address it directly with the claimant.”
Prakash Jah Productions – maker of the comedy Lipstick Under My Burkha – and Red Chillies Entertainment – creator of romance-themed Jab Harry Met Sejal secured a national-wide block of Archive.org.
It is not rare for countries such as India to block entire service providers based on copyright claims affecting a couple of incidents. Porn, torrenting, and file hosting sites are routinely blocked in India as well.
The crack down is getting more harsh everyone on pirated movies/music/etc. – Though, one has to wonder what benefits or stakes the India government might have on the flip side of that ban coin.
Till ydy i was able to access the site on actfibrenet but today it shoes as blocked.very harsh by govt of india depriving lots of scholar’s in research hope GoI will understand this and unblock the site