Internet Archive hits back at publishers’ copyright claims
The Internet Archive has defended its online library project in a strong response to a suit filed by four major book publishers, denying allegations that it is engaged in “willful mass copyright infringement”.
In an answer filed Tuesday, July 28, Internet Archive stated: “Contrary to the publishers’ accusations, the Internet Archive and the hundreds of libraries and archives that support it are not pirates or thieves. They are librarians, striving to serve their patrons online just as they have done for centuries in the brick-and-mortar world.”
Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House filed their copyright suit against the Internet Archive in June this year, accusing the online library of intentional and systematic copyright infringement.
Launched in 2006, the Internet Archive’s Open Library is an online project intended to create “one web page for every book ever published”.
In March this year, the Internet Archive launched its emergency library project, expanding access to 1.4 million digitised works and removing access restrictions to the books, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project, which drew the ire of authors, and author and publishers associations, was shut down earlier than planned in mid-June, following the filing of the copyright infringement suit.
In announcing the suit, Maria Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said: “Regrettably, it seems clear that [the] Internet Archive intends to bludgeon the legal framework that governs copyright investments and transactions in the modern world.”
The non-profit Internet Archive has argued that its Open Library is protected by the fair use doctrine, and that its project “serves the public interest in preservation, access and research—all classic fair use purposes”.
According to the non-profit, the publisher’s suit is seeking to end the practice of controlled digital lending (CDL), where libraries can loan digitised versions of print books they own.
The Open Library mimics the constraints of a physical library—the Internet Archive limits the number of scanned copies of a title available for download at any one time to the number of print books of that title in its collection.
“The Internet Archive has made careful efforts to ensure its uses are lawful. The Internet Archive’s CDL programme is sheltered by the fair use doctrine, buttressed by traditional library protections,” the non-profit said in its response.
In a recent blog post, the Internet Archive has claimed that every digital learner’s access to library books is at stake with this lawsuit.
“That is why the Internet Archive is standing up to defend the rights of hundreds of libraries that are using CDL,” it added.
The online library claims that the publishers are also calling for the destruction of the 1.5 million digital books that the Internet Archive makes available to its patrons.
It said: “This form of digital book burning is unprecedented and unfairly disadvantages people with print disabilities...If the publishers are successful with their lawsuit, more than a million of those books would be deleted from the internet’s digital shelves forever.”
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