In “Piracy, Public Access, and Preservation: An Exploration of Sustainable Accessibility in a Public Torrent Index,” John D. Martin III considers the argument that torrent sites like The Pirate Bay should be considered as public libraries, as some torrent advocates have argued. He concludes that there is a massive amount of cultural material on The Pirate Bay and other similar sites, and that “the variety and richness of the content found in torrent networks may eventually represent a tragic loss of cultural data” should these sites be shut down. Martin also, however, suggests that torrent sites should not be considered as public libraries as their content is far too fragile and prone to removal. Moreover, it is arguable that the lack of a central authority for acquiring, maintaining, coordinating, and preserving cultural material collections would be a significant hindrance to torrent sites’ status as credible and comprehensive public libraries.

Work cited

Martin, John D. III. 2017. “Piracy, Public Access, and Preservation: An Exploration of Sustainable Accessibility in a Public Torrent Index.” SocArxiv: n.p. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/hzp6r/