Internet Archive Loses First Ruling In Copyright Battle With Major Publishers

The Internet Archive hasn’t gone by the book in lending out literature during the pandemic, a federal judge decided in an early court decision involving the nonprofit and four major publishing houses.

The longstanding site, set up to eternalize historical resources and bring digital, “universal access to all knowledge,” rushed to launch an online ‘National Emergency Library’ amid the coronavirus lockdown, when physical libraries were suddenly forced to close. This new service gave the public unlimited downloads of e-books, as opposed to normally imposing waitlists and borrowing limits to a specific, authorized number of copies.

The Internet Archive, which acquires books by purchasing them or receiving them in donations, and not by striking deals with publishers, deemed the move to have adhered to “fair use” guidelines—a stance that is being contested by Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House. In June 2020, the four publishers sued the website for violating the copyright of books they own. In response, the Internet Archive took down the service.

Last Friday, Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan took the side of the publishing houses and ruled that the archive was producing “derivative” works without permission.

The decision was applauded by the Authors Guild, which had publicly disputed the opening of the emergency library back in 2020. “As we have long argued, scanning and lending books without permission or compensation is NOT fair use—it is theft and it devalues authors’ works,” it commented.

Chris Freeland, the director of Open Libraries at the Internet Archive, said the ruling “is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve.” The organization added that it would file an appeal.

“For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society—owning, preserving, and lending books,” asserted the nonprofit’s founder Brewster Kahle.

Freeland stressed that the battle is “not over.” 

“We will keep fighting for the traditional right of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books.” At the same time, the Internet Archive will “continue our work as a library,” he elaborated.

“This case does not challenge many of the services we provide with digitized books, including interlibrary loan, citation linking, access for the print-disabled, text and data mining, purchasing ebooks, and ongoing donation and preservation of books.”

[via Mashable, NPR, Associated Press, cover photo 55175067 © Melek Kalyoncu | Dreamstime.com]