Contingency Plan

PermanentLink is built to last. The system is layered on top of highly reliable cloud infrastructure that is used by large businesses and institutions alike. This service is meant to be sustained for decades. Still, no one can guarantee the future, from technological shifts to force-majeure events. That's why we have compiled this document to outline how we intend to make sure your links will continue working even if PermanentLink should ever be shut down.

Normal Operations

During normal operations, PermanentLink will maintain:

1. Hourly Backups. All links and projects within PermanentLink are secured in a highly-available database that is receiving hourly backups.
2. Daily full link exports. All links created on PermanentLink are safely stored in a reduntdant storage as a exported configuration file that would allow for setting up a fully low-cost redirection service in case of emergencies. These exported files themselves are submitted to the Internet Archive.
3. No vendor lock-in. If you use your own custom domain with PermanentLink, you can export a redirection configuration for self-hosted redirection systems built on nginx and htaccess at any time. PermanentLink's mission is to combat link rot. We will not introduce more link rot by making you choose between a subscription or broken links.

Two-Year Phaseout Period

Should PermanentLink ever need to shut down, we will freeze the creation of new projects and links, but continue to serving PermanentLinks. Monitoring of those links will cease at some point. During this phaseout period, PermanentLink will:

1. Offer a migration path for users with Custom Domains. Since we already offer self-directed export of redirection configutation for self-hosted redirection systems, we will communicate a clear and comprehensive tutorial to set up those systems.
2. Seek a new host for the existing PermanentLink platform. We will approach interested and reputable parties to take over and run PermanentLink as a fully-featured product.
3. Share a public version of all PermanentLink links (filtering out all links declared as private by each customer), allowing institutional and public players to work on a solution for keeping all PermanentLinks available and monitored.
4. Cancel all ongoing subscriptions. At the same time, we will allow people to have access to their accounts for as long as possible, with ample warning leading up to platform access restrictions.

Ten-Year Phaseout Period

After a two-year phaseout period, for as long as practical but for at least ten years, PermanentLink will:

1. Run a low-cost redirection server. If no suitable host has been found to serve a static or dynamic version of the entire PermanentLink service, we will maintain a simple redirect server. When a user requests a PermanentLink URL, they will be automatically redirected to the best available alternative at the close of the two-year phaseout. Alternatives might be: a new host that has agreed to serve a static version based on our redirection configuration export; a new host identified by the affiliated organization; the corresponding Wayback Machine link; or the original website as configured on PermanentLink.
2. Supply the full redirection configuration export file to public archives upon request.