A Website Owner's Practical Guide to the Wayback Machine

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 251 I. THE WAYBACK MACHINE AND THE ADMISSIBILITY OF SCREEN SHOTS AS EVIDENCE .................................................... 252 A. WayBack What?: How It Works ......................................... 252 B. Screen Shots as Evidence .................................................... 256 1. Federal Rules of Evidence ............................................ 256 2. Federal Courts’ Treatment of Admissibility ................. 258 3. Internet Archive’s Authentication Policies ................... 262 II. BENEFITS AND PROBLEMS WITH USE OF THE WAYBACK MACHINE IN LITIGATION ........................................................... 264 A. Benefits ............................................................................... 264 B. Problems ............................................................................. 265 III. WAYS TO PREVENT ACCESS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............ 267 A. Internet Archive’s Policies ................................................. 267 B. Robots.txt ............................................................................ 268 C. Recommendations ............................................................... 273 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 277