Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Moderator: Alastair
Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
It is extremely annoying that one cannot download any software from the above web site from the U.K. at the moment. To quote the www.gov.uk web site:
Due to the UK Online Safety Act, all games on the IF Archive are currently unavailable to users in the United Kingdom.
This broad restriction is temporary. We are currently working to review our holdings and flag works that are legally required to be restricted. We apologize for the service disruption for these users and hope to have everything back to as-normal-as-possible as soon as possible.
Let's hope this is resolved as quickly as possible. I find the thing rather sinister.
Canalboy
Due to the UK Online Safety Act, all games on the IF Archive are currently unavailable to users in the United Kingdom.
This broad restriction is temporary. We are currently working to review our holdings and flag works that are legally required to be restricted. We apologize for the service disruption for these users and hope to have everything back to as-normal-as-possible as soon as possible.
Let's hope this is resolved as quickly as possible. I find the thing rather sinister.
Canalboy
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Mr Creosote
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Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Seems like they want to restore it: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@zarfebl ... 8677819651
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Earlier, I noticed the interpreters and utilities appear to be unaffected, just the games are blocked. The guidance also legally prohibits recommending any possible workarounds.
Last edited by benkid77 on Sun Aug 03, 2025 4:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
benkid77 - author of "Dragon Gold Cave" (Micral N), "Castle Dracwulf" (LADS), "Elfbayne" (ZX80), "SpecVIC mini-adventure" (ZX Spectrum) https://www.youtube.com/user/benkid77/videos 
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Yes I had thought of the work around. It is more the principle of the thing and what they might get up to next. O2 for instance block archive.org unless you request access and can prove you are over eighteen years of age. A rather odd conceit considering much of what they seem to consider admissible.
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
There's a thread with an explanation on intfiction:
Zarf wrote:Here’s the details:
We received this advice from our lawyer on Monday and it said “do this now”. So we got to work.
The restriction applies to the following directories (including subdirectories):
https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/
https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/collections/
https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/rec.arts.int-fiction/
https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/rec.games.int-fiction/
https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/unprocessed/
https://unbox.ifarchive.org/
Note that the index pages are not restricted. You can visit https://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive/games/, for example, but (if you’re in the UK) clicking on any game will show an error page.
I used Cloudflare’s geolocation feature (and Cloudflare access rules) to set this up.
We are not legally permitted to recommend ways around this restriction. Yes, the UK’s guidance actually says that.
Our next step is for our volunteers to go through our entire game list and tag games which the UK regulations restrict. Once that’s done, we can lift the directory block and replace it with a tag-based block. However, before we start that process, we need to talk to the lawyer some more.
The step after that is to look into age verification services which satisfy the UK law. Yes, these services are intrusive and imperfect. I figure it’s better to make that choice available for users who are willing to try them.
To ask the obvious question: does this affect IFDB, IFComp, IFWiki, or this forum? Maybe! We need to talk to the lawyer some more! We are figuring this mess out as fast as we can.
Another note: you’ve probably seen that Itch.IO has placed a similar restriction on UK users. Remember that this is a completely separate problem from the “payment processors” discussed in this thread. IFTF uses Paypal, but we do not sell games so we are not subject to Paypal’s limitations on what merchants can sell. IFTF does offer its web services to UK users, so we are subject to UK regulations.
(Itch is subject to both, so it has implemented two separate limitation policies.)
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Ifdb.org has been restricted.
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
The National Cyber Security Centre (1) has some device security guidance - https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/devi ... e-networks - and surely the government wants us to be as secure as possible when using the internet?
(1) The National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, helps businesses, the public sector and individuals protect the online services and devices that we all depend on.
(1) The National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, helps businesses, the public sector and individuals protect the online services and devices that we all depend on.
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Why not block the entire World Wide Web? You can't be too careful eh?
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Ah, but the NCSC gives advice on a more secure means to access the WWW that ... oh am I really not allowed to complete this sentence?Canalboy wrote: Thu Aug 07, 2025 11:51 pm Why not block the entire World Wide Web? You can't be too careful eh?
Incidentally what are the restrictions at Ifdb.org? The only problems I've found are external download links to the IF Archive.
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Which is an unnecessary censure too many. In a country where you now have to provide a photograph and an email address to withdraw euro currency we are moving away from the thin end of the totalitarian wedge.
Just put the word "crisis" after any issue and you can ride rough shod over the remains of democratic procedure.
It will only get worse. And remember, it's all in your interest.
Just put the word "crisis" after any issue and you can ride rough shod over the remains of democratic procedure.
It will only get worse. And remember, it's all in your interest.
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Canalboy, you have got the wrong end of the stick. I disagree with this Act as much as anybody else who values freedom, I'm just pointing out that the NCSC recommends a method of security that ... (apparently I cannot complete this sentence because "we are not legally permitted to recommend ways around this restriction").
Re: Information Regarding The if-archive.org. Web Site
Sorry Alastair I did agree with you although I probably should have made myself clearer. The thing that makes me laugh is the fact they say that this is temporary. If they are predicating the restoration of how things were on some kind of granularity whereby they systematically examine hordes of Web sites at a micro level then they will always be chasing their tail. The solution I suspect will be as half-baked as the initial idea was.
Thank goodness there are ways around it - or so I've heard
Thank goodness there are ways around it - or so I've heard