I understood there was a problem with archive.org a couple of years ago, when I went to get something from jameshfetzer.org from it. I got some message that all that site's content was banned.

That is, they only resorted to subterfuge in this case because they needed to act quickly. In normal circumstances, they can apparently vaporize an archive totally above board (well, for what phrase may mean any more). I never found any mention anywhere of what legal mechanism was used, not that they really care about proving legitimacy.

I actually remember the time when the FBI wanted lists of the books that "persons of interest" had checked out, and librarians told them to fuck right off. Those days are gone but not forgotten.