Latest news with #InternetArchive
Engadget
5 days ago
- Business
- Engadget
Spotify is raising prices for international customers
Spotify is raising prices for many international customers . The company just said that Premium subscribers throughout the world will be receiving an email within the next month that outlines the increase. It hasn't announced which countries will be impacted, but did say that the areas include South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. That's most of the world. The company didn't provide specific details regarding the price increase, but did post a sample email in a blog post that showed an uptick of around $1 per month. The email notes an increase from €10.99 to €11.99 in an unspecified country. In American dollars, the new cost shakes out to around $13.90. The price for American consumers is still $12 per month. An email announcing a price increase. (Spotify) Spotify announced this news after a disappointing earnings report in which it missed revenue expectations. This caused the stock to drop by 11 percent and for CEO Daniel Ek to announce that he's "unhappy" with the company's current performance. The Verge scoured the Internet Archive and found that some countries have already experienced a recent price increase. The new subscription cost has already been applied to users in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Ek has been branching away from the music and podcast streaming business in recent months. He recently led a $694 million investment in a defense startup called Helsing. If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
The Verge
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
The chaos and confusion of Itch and Steam's abrupt adult game ban
Two of the biggest digital games stores have stopped selling thousands of titles following pressure from a coalition of anti-porn advocates and the world's biggest payment processing companies. It's happened before, will likely happen again, and is suppressing art, free expression, and marginalized creators. Last week, the indie gaming storefront sent out a sudden notice to the creators that use the site to sell their games, books, art, and other media; it had 'deindexed' all content with the NSFW (not safe for work) tag, meaning works with that tag would no longer turn up in searches, effectively making it impossible to discover or purchase them. Last week, Steam did similarly, removing a swath of games from its platform after implementing stricter policies related to adult content. In its announcement, founder Leaf Corcoran explained that the reason for this drastic action was pressure applied to the company's payment processors by Collective Shout — an Australian nonprofit organization that describes itself as 'a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls.' 'Due to a game titled No Mercy, which was temporarily available on before being banned back in April, the organization Collective Shout launched a campaign against Steam and directing concerns to our payment processors about the nature of certain content found on both platforms,' Corcoran said. Released in March before being delisted by both Steam and in April, No Mercy was described by Collective Shout as a 'rape simulator.' Its developer, Zerat Games, denied this, describing it as a '3D choice-driven adult visual novel with a huge focus on blackmail and male domination.' As a result of Collective Shout's actions, in tandem with the payment processors, over 20,000 games, books, comics, and other creative works — confirmed via the Internet Archive — functionally ceased to exist on the site (though purchased content remains in users' libraries so long as it doesn't violate new guidelines), imperiling the creators who depend on sales from In addition to NSFW content, notable projects that didn't have the tag were caught up in the purge as well. One example is Consume Me, a game about disordered eating and the recent recipient of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2025 Independent Games Festival, which was delisted. There's also concern that this deindexing event will have a disproportionate impact on queer creators, and in the immediate aftermath there has been confusion about the distinction between 'NSFW' and 'adult' content, with a lot of LGBTQ+ stories and games falling under the umbrella of the former. 'My SFW sci-fi comic that's no worse than a standard Marvel movie also got deindexed... but it had the LGBT tag,' wrote Yuki Clarke, a comic artist, on Bluesky. Whenever a platform announces a blanket ban on adult content, LGBTQ+ creators are almost always disproportionately affected, harming queer artists and invariably queer people. In 2021, eBay's removal of its 'Adult Only' section eliminated a popular storefront for LGBTQ+ erotica artists and collectors. In 2022, Tumblr settled with the New York City Commission on Human Rights because its 2018 ban of 'adult content' had a discriminatory impact on queer creators. Several creators have said that their SFW content with the LGBT tag have been deindexed. has responded to some of these claims on social media, saying, 'The deindexing was determined by how creators classified their pages: specifically if the page was tagged as NSFW and as having adult content.' However, there have also been reports that content with the LGBT tag but not the NSFW or Adult tags were still getting delisted, creating confusion about just what kind of works was pulling from its store and why. The Verge has reached out to for clarification. On Bluesky, in response to a creator claiming their LGBT books were delisted despite not having any adult or NSFW tags, the account answered, 'We have a series of automated heuristics that can flag pages for review based on account behavior to help prevent abuse.' It further explained that the LGBT or queer tags wouldn't affect that system. acknowledged that the blanket delisting of all its adult content wasn't ideal and has created concern among its users. But the threat of losing its payment processors required emergency action. 'The situation developed rapidly, and we had to act urgently to protect the platform's core payment infrastructure,' Corcoran wrote. Typically, payment processors take actions like this to ensure their products aren't being used to purchase illegal content. In Steam's case, it updated its guidelines to include a rule that prohibits publishing material that 'may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors.' In an email, Casey Becker, spokesperson for Stripe, responded that it does not comment on users directly but, 'generally speaking, we take action when we conclude that users violate our terms of service. We do not support adult content.' Payoneer, one of other payment processors, declined to comment. The Verge has also reached out to PayPal, the last of listed payment processors, for comment. Payment processors have frequently been the reason behind content bans. Though Collective Shout was the inciting agent, it's companies like Visa, Stripe, and others that are responsible for these kinds of acts of mass censorship. In 2014, PayPal threatened to remove all its services from Patreon because the site hosted adult content creators. (PayPal would reverse this decision two years later, but Patreon still makes it difficult for sex workers and porn creators to do business on the website.) In 2021, OnlyFans, a website synonymous with porn, announced that it would ban all sexually explicit content to 'comply with the requests of [the platform's] banking partners and payout provider.' Six days later, OnlyFans would reverse the decision, citing assurances from its banking partners. Scratch a porn ban, and you'll find a PayPal. These processors have enormous power over their clients, and that influence can be used to achieve goals that have nothing to do with consumer choice or safety. is forced to comply with their demands or risk being unable to function entirely. 'To ensure that we can continue to operate and provide a marketplace for all developers, we must prioritize our relationship with our payment partners and take immediate steps towards compliance,' Corcoran wrote in announcement. says that it is in the process of reviewing and removing NSFW and adult-tagged content that violates its terms of service, while also updating those terms. 'For NSFW pages, this will include a new step where creators must confirm that their content is allowable under the policies of the respective payment processors linked to their account,' the announcement read. It has also updated its July 24th announcement to include answers to commonly asked questions that had been circulating social media, debunking rumors surrounding whether was withholding payments and addressing why such drastic action had to be taken so disruptively. The company also says it's working on finding new payment processors. Players and users are fighting back, flooding Visa and Mastercard customer service lines with complaints. A database has been created where creators can list their deindexed work for people to browse and purchase on alternative sites. Some creators are also removing their work from and are threatening to leave it altogether, as updated NSFW policy makes bans permanent and irreversible while explicitly threatening subversive art. 'Our policy is not an invitation to push the boundaries of what is acceptable. Violations that result in administrative action are permanent with no chance of appeal,' the creator FAQ reads. 'Any funds on the account will not be eligible for payout. There is no second chance.' Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Ash Parrish Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. 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The Star
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Celebrate 40 years of the Amiga by playing the classic games here
Commodore started in 1985 with the expensive Amiga 1000. In 1987, the cheaper Amiga 500 (pictured) was also introduced. — Photo: Andrea Warnecke/dpa BERLIN: On July 23, 1985, a legendary gaming computer was born. Four decades on since the original Amiga 1000, anyone feeling nostalgic at the thought of their old Commodore game collection doesn't need to dust off a machine to celebrate. Today, it's far easier to play classics like Emerald Mine , Speedball 2 , Tie Break , King's Quest , Battle Chess , Stunt Car Racer and Test Drive – all right from your web browser. This is made possible by the Internet Archive in San Francisco. The foundation collects virtually all types of digital data imaginable on its servers to preserve them for posterity: music, films, software, websites and, of course, games. The Amiga software library contains more than 13,000 titles. Many of these can be played for free directly in the browser, controlled via keyboard and sometimes also with a mouse. It plays best in full-screen mode: To do this, click on the fullscreen view icon in the top right corner and remember to enable sound below it. Unfortunately, gaming with the archive's collection does not always work reliably. Some games may not start at all. But anyone with a little patience and interest will likely not regret a visit to the Amiga section of the Internet Archive. One major advantage of playing there is that there is no need to constantly swap floppy disks, as was required with the original computer – something most Amiga owners won't miss. For Amiga fans with a television at home, there is also a retro version of the old computer in a smaller format: the A500 Mini. Unlike the free Internet Archive, the mini console comes with a price tag, currently around US$135 or €130 (around RM569). – dpa
The Verge
25-07-2025
- The Verge
The Internet Archive is now an official hub for government documents.
Posted Jul 25, 2025 at 6:36 PM UTC The Internet Archive is now an official hub for government documents. California Senator Alex Padilla granted the Internet Archive federal depository status, allowing it to more easily access and share government documents with the public. 'By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that it's more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive,' Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told KQED . Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Emma Roth Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Emma Roth Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Web
Engadget
25-07-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Internet Archive is now an official US government document library
The US Senate has granted the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it officially part of an 1,100-library network that gives the public access to government documents, KQED reported. The designation was made official in a letter from California Senator Alex Padilla to the Government Publishing Office that oversees the network. "The Archive's digital-first approach makes it the perfect fit for a modern federal depository library, expanding access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape," he wrote. Established by Congress in 1813, the Federal Depository Library Program is designed to help the public access government records. Each congressional member can designate up to two libraries, which include government information like budgets, a code of federal regulations, presidential documents, economic reports and census data. With its new status, the Internet Archive will be gain improved access to government materials, founder Brewster Kahle said in a statement. "By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that it's more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive, to then be made available to the patrons of the Internet Archive or partner libraries." The Archive could also help other libraries move toward digital preservation, given its experience in that area. It's some good news for the site which has faced legal battles of late. It was sued by major publishers over loans of digital books during the Coronavirus epidemic and was forced by a federal court in 2023 to remove more than half a million titles. And more recently, major music label filed lawsuits over its Great 78 Project that strove to preserve 78 RPM records. If it loses that case it could owe more than $700 million damages and possibly be forced to shut down. The new designation likely won't aid its legal problems, but it does affirm the site's importance to the public. "In October, the Internet Archive will hit a milestone of 1 trillion pages," Kahle wrote. "And that 1 trillion is not just a testament to what libraries are able to do, but actually the sharing that people and governments have to try and create an educated populace."
