LibriVox Forum

This posting is about the LibriVox site itself as opposed to the LibriVox readings and audiobooks. Basically, it appears that the LibriVox site has many links to pages and files on the Internet Archive, in addition to having links to pages on LibriVox and links to pages on Wikipedia. It would seem useful on the LibriVox site to use HTTPS (https://) for links to the Internet Archive, LibriVox, and Wikipedia in order to provide an experience for users that would be more private and secure than it would be if regular HTTP (http://) links were used. In 2013, the Internet Archive moved to make its site use HTTPS by default, and in 2015, the Wikimedia Foundation blogged about implementing HTTPS on their sites (which include Wikipedia.) An advantage of using HTTPS is that users and visitors on the LibriVox site would have more secure connectivity without having to install additional software or do anything different.

For example, the page https://librivox.org/hamlet-by-william-shakespeare/ includes a lot of HTTP links for which it appears that HTTPS equivalents are available.

In the page header:

• http://forum.librivox.org -> https://forum.librivox.org
• http://twitter.com/librivox -> https://twitter.com/librivox

In the Listen/Download section:

• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0911_librivox_64kb_mp3.zip -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0911_librivox_64kb_mp3.zip
• http://librivox.org/rss/346 -> https://librivox.org/rss/346
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0911_librivox_archive.torrent -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0911_librivox_archive.torrent

In the Links section:

• http://www.archive.org/details/hamlet_0911_librivox -> https://archive.org/details/hamlet_0911_librivox
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
• http://www.archive.org/details/LibrivoxPlainVanillaCdCaseInserts -> https://archive.org/details/LibrivoxPlainVanillaCdCaseInserts

Under the "Hamlet" heading:

• http://www.archive.org/download/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/hamlet_1104.jpg -> https://archive.org/download/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/hamlet_1104.jpg
• http://www.archive.org/download/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/hamlet_1104.pdf -> https://archive.org/download/LibrivoxCdCoverArt8/hamlet_1104.pdf

In the cast listing:

• http://librivox.org/reader/2014 -> https://librivox.org/reader/2014
• http://librivox.org/reader/26 -> https://librivox.org/reader/26
• http://librivox.org/reader/28 -> https://librivox.org/reader/28
• http://librivox.org/reader/2624 -> https://librivox.org/reader/2624
• http://librivox.org/reader/19 -> https://librivox.org/reader/19
• http://librivox.org/reader/622 -> https://librivox.org/reader/622
• http://librivox.org/reader/2045 -> https://librivox.org/reader/2045
• http://librivox.org/reader/364 -> https://librivox.org/reader/364
• http://librivox.org/reader/2015 -> https://librivox.org/reader/2015
• http://librivox.org/reader/55 -> https://librivox.org/reader/55
• http://librivox.org/reader/1492 -> https://librivox.org/reader/1492
• http://librivox.org/reader/113 -> https://librivox.org/reader/113
• http://librivox.org/reader/1034 -> https://librivox.org/reader/1034
• http://librivox.org/reader/622 -> https://librivox.org/reader/622
• http://librivox.org/reader/87 -> https://librivox.org/reader/87
• http://librivox.org/reader/56 -> https://librivox.org/reader/56

Under "SECTION":

• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0_shakespeare_64kb.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act1_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act1_shakespeare_64kb.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act2_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act2_shakespeare_64kb.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act3_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act3_shakespeare_64kb.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act4_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act4_shakespeare_64kb.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act5_shakespeare_64kb.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act5_shakespeare_64kb.mp3

Under "CHAPTER":

• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_0_shakespeare.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act1_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act1_shakespeare.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act2_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act2_shakespeare.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act3_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act3_shakespeare.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act4_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act4_shakespeare.mp3
• http://www.archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act5_shakespeare.mp3 -> https://archive.org/download/hamlet_0911_librivox/hamlet_act5_shakespeare.mp3

I do not know exactly how the LibriVox site is implemented. One guess is that pages such as https://librivox.org/hamlet-by-william-shakespeare/ are generated from a combination of title-specific information retrieved from a database plus static HTML content that is the same for each page. In such a case, it might be possible to specify HTTPS for links or rewrite HTTP links to HTTPS in the static content. For the situation where a LibriVox page links to another LibriVox page, it might be possible to use a relative URL which would use HTTPS if the page containing the link was accessed via HTTPS.

As far as I know, we'd have to go in and manually change all the project-specific links. That would be a LOT of work. It would be ideal, but I don't know if the admins would want to invest the enormous amount of time to change them.

The next time we are in a position to make changes to the software, this can be done across the system. Unfortunately, when we did our last major upgrade to our cataloging system in 2012-13, the automatic links that are generated in the database were left as http. They redirect to the more modern https address.