The unofficial Apple archive available at www.applearchive.org is struggling to exist. The archive features a collection of over 15,000 Apple product ads, company’s internal training videos, and many other videos which nobody thought even existed (or made in the first place).
The curator of the unofficial Apple Sam Henri Gold received a surprise DMCA takedown which were put in place by Apple’s lawyers. Most of the videos uploaded by Gold were removed from Vimeo.
The Verge got in touch with Gold and he said “Do you know what it’s like getting 700 email notifications on your wrist in like 2 minutes? Your wrist sorta goes numb from the vibrations”. Gold later on tweeted on the 25th of January that 264 videos were still up at the time.
“A bunch of both past and present Apple employees have shown overwhelming interest and support for what I’m doing,” said Gold, suggesting that he would love to work with the Cupertino company create an official version of the archive, if he is presented with the opportunity.
The archive website however still has a lot of old print ads made by Apple. The move from Apple is not exactly surprising as the videos belong to Apple and the company has the right to protect its intellectual property.
“I get their brand doesn’t dwell in the past, but public company history preservation is invaluable for their devoted consumer base and researchers alike,” he says.
The (Unofficial) Apple Archive
My videos may be down but my spirit is up. Standby please.
Dedicated to the unsung studio designers, copywriters, producers, ADs, CDs, and everyone else who creates wonderful things.
Dedicated to those who stayed up late and got up early to get on the family iMac to recreate event slides in Keynote.
Thank you.
