A federal appeal has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Internet Archive’s virtual Open Library program is considered “copyright infringement.”
Four years ago, publishers Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive for providing more than 1.3 million books to internet users just as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. was underway.
The publishers claim that Internet Archive is dealing with “intentional mass copyright infringement” and that the services of the website “grossly overreaching legitimate library services, violating the Copyright Act and causing deliberate digital piracy on an industrial scale.”
Unlike conventional e-books, the Open Library program allows users to “check out” online books that the Internet Archive actually holds in a warehouse. The digital copy represents an actual purchased physical copy hosted off site. Just as paper money was originally intended to represent gold and other precious metals; meaning that the virtual books in the Open Library are more ‘real’ than the current fiat currency. But that’s a conversation for another article.
Chris Freeland from the Internet Archive shared his disappointment with the decision and said:
We are disappointed in the current opinion regarding the Internet Archive’s digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere. We review the court’s ruling and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books.
He ends his message with a call for supporters to sign an agreement open lettercalling for access to hundreds of thousands of books to be restored.
However, this may not be the final word as the Supreme Court could potentially be called in to hear the case.
Anyone interested in supporting the Internet Archive can find more information here.
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