Internet Archive Fails to Win a Significant Copyright Case against major publication houses
News Mania Desk/Piyal Chatterjee / 7th September 2024
The Internet Archive has lost a court case that could significantly lessen the creep factor throughout the whole web. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit maintained an earlier decision that favored Hachette Book Group. Because of a project that scanned library books and made limitless duplicates, Hachette filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive. Publishers Hachette and others claimed that this was “almost like piracy.”
Known for its extensive efforts at digital preservation, the Internet Archive encountered legal issues about its CDL policies and Open Library project. The project’s goal was to establish a digital library where readers could check out digital versions of books for a set amount of time, each with its own homepage.
A technique for connecting real and virtual libraries is CDL. Through encrypted files that become unusable after the lending period has elapsed, users can “borrow” digital versions of books for a predetermined amount of time. For every physical copy held by the Archive, borrowers could access a corresponding digital copy.
Hachette filed a lawsuit against the National Emergency Library (NEL) of the Internet Archive. The project started in 2020 when the pandemic forced the closure of libraries. It was an extension of their Open Library project, which lets users check out digital library books just like ebooks. NEL books could be checked out by as many individuals as wanted them, but Open Library books could only be checked out one at a time. Although the Internet Archive reinstated loan limitations in less than two months, publishers such as Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley continued to file lawsuits in June 2020. In March 2023, a judge’s decision in the publishers’ favor prompted an appeal by the Internet Archive. They are no longer appealing today.
One bright spot for Internet Archive is that the Court of Appeals acknowledged in their decision that the website is a nonprofit organization as opposed to a business. Major record labels filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive, which is currently pending in court and could cost the website up to $400 million.
The case has important ramifications for public knowledge access and digital libraries. Due to a ruling from the previous year, the Archive had to take 500,000 books out of the Open Library initiative. According to The Archive, this significantly decreased access to digital literature, especially for people who didn’t have access to well-funded institutions.
