Vast Virtual Catalog of Internet History You Didn’t Know Existed.
The Wayback Machine Stores An Expansive Internet Archive That Is Now Entering The Courtroom.
You may have thought that your deleted MySpace page, circa 2005, was permanently erased more than a decade ago, but imagine if every few weeks a copy of all things that have ever existed online were being saved in a vast virtual catalog of internet history. Well, they may be. Enter the Wayback Machine, a website that currently stores more than 500 billion archived webpages.
In a recent article by Stephen Bychowski at Foley Hoag, LLP, he discusses the Wayback Machine and its potential use in litigation. With appropriately date-stamped websites, the Wayback Machine has the potential to help prove useful admissions, patent disputes, past infringement of copyrighted and trademarked content, and more. Although powerful, it’s important to note that the Wayback Machine is not a perfect source as it can sometimes omit images and update different pages at different times.
Albeit imperfect, there has never been evidence suggesting that the archive adds content or otherwise alters the saved webpages. Although defendants in a recent case argued for Wayback’s unreliability, Courts recently allowed screenshots to be admitted on two independent grounds, saying, “The fact that the Wayback Machine doesn’t capture everything that was on those sites does not bear on whether the things that were captured were in fact on those sites.”
Do you have a matter that involves uncovering the digital footprints that were once thought to be deleted? Cornerstone Discovery specializes in the collection, preservation, analysis, reporting and expert witness testimony of all things digital. Contact Cornerstone Discovery today.
