The Internet Archive is defending its digital collection
The Internet Archive : What is it?
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organisation that was established in 1996 with the declared goal of granting “universal access to all knowledge.” In response, the organisation offers free public access to digital content like as websites, publications, audio recordings (including live concerts), videos, photographs, and software.
RECENT CASE : Hachette v. Internet Archive
In the case of Hachette v. Internet Archive, which was brought by four book publishers, a federal judge decided against the website, finding that it lacks the authority to scan books and lend them out like a library.
Judge John G. Koeltl determined that the Internet Archive had just created “derivative works,” and as a result, it would have required permission from the publishers who own the copyright to the books in order to give them out through its National Emergency Library programme.
In court, The Internet Archive is defending its digital collection :
It will appeal, according to The Internet Archive. ” Lower courts decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve,” writes Chris Freeland, the director of Open Libraries at the Internet Archive, in a blog post. This choice has an effect on libraries all across the US that use regulated digital lending to link their customers to books online. By claiming that unfair licencing methods are the only way their books may be read online, authors are harmed. Additionally, it restricts information availability in the digital age, affecting readers everywhere.
HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House joined Hachette as plaintiffs when the two sides appeared in court on Monday.
In making his decision, Judge Koetl took into account whether or not the Internet Archive was following the rules of fair use, which in the past safeguarded a project to preserve digital books by Google Books and HathiTrust in 2014, among other users. Fair usage takes into account a variety of factors, including whether copying a copyrighted work would benefit the public, how it will affect the copyright holder, how much of the work has been copied, and if the usage “transformed” the copyrighted item into something new.
The judge rejected all of the IA’s claims regarding fair use :
However, Koetl claimed that any “alleged benefits” from the library of the Internet Archive “cannot outweigh the market harm to the publishers,” that “there is nothing transformative about [Internet Archive’s] copying and unauthorised lending,” and that copying these books doesn’t provide “criticism, commentary, or information about them.” The use of Google Books, he notes, was considered “transformative” since it created a searchable database as opposed to just publishing copies of books online.
Additionally, Koetl refuted suggestions that the Internet Archive aided publishers in increasing book sales. He asserted that there was no concrete proof of this and that it was “irrelevant” that the Internet Archive had purchased its own copies of the books prior to producing copies for its online audience.
The Internet Archive currently hosts about 70,000 e-book “borrows” per day, per statistics gathered during the pilot.
The “National Emergency Library,” which allowed individuals to read from 1.4 million digitised books without having to wait in queue, was introduced by the Internet Archive at the beginning of the covid pandemic. This decision led to the lawsuit. The Internet Archive’s Open Library programme typically uses a “controlled digital lending” (CDL) system where it can lend out digital copies of a book to one person at a time, but it removed those waitlists to provide easier access to those books when stay-at-home orders came in during the pandemic. (CDL systems operate differently than programmes like Over Drive, which you may use to borrow ebooks with publisher permission.) The collection of publishers filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive in June 2020 because several people were upset with the organization’s decision. The Archive terminated that programme later in that month.
Despite the decision, The Internet Archive claims it will still function as a library in other ways. “The prevailing case does not challenge many of the services they provide with digitised books, including interlibrary loan, citation linking, access for the print-disabled, text and data mining, purchasing ebooks, and ongoing donation and preservation of books,” says Freeland.
According to Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, “the publishing community is grateful to the Court for its unequivocal affirmation of the Copyright Act and respect for established precedent.”
The Court has emphasised the significance of authors, publishers, and creative markets in a global society by rejecting arguments that would have stretched fair usage to absurd limits. In addition to thanking the thousands of public libraries across the nation that provide their communities with daily services through legal eBook licences, we also celebrate the opinion. We anticipate that the defendant and anybody else who considers public laws to be inconvenient to their own interests will find the opinion to be informative.
In the event that IA’s fair use defence is rejected by the court, IA requests that statutory damages be waived. Refer to Def.’s Memo. at pp. 35–36.
The Copyright Act’s Section 504 instructs courts to remit statutory damages where the defendant “infringed by reproducing the work in copies” and “believed and had reasonable grounds for believing” that its use of the work was fair use, as is the case here, and the infringer is a “nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives,” or one of its agents or employees. 17 U.S.C. § 504(c)(2). IA’s statutory remittance defence is premature at this time. IA has the option to reopen the debate in relation to the formulation of a sound judgement.
CONCLUSION : All of the parties’ arguments have been taken into account by the court. Insofar as not particularly addressed above, the arguments are either irrelevant or invalid. The defendants’ petition for summary judgement is denied, and the plaintiffs’ move for summary judgement is granted, for the reasons stated above. The suitable procedure to decide the judgement to be entered in this case should be proposed by the parties individually (or, ideally, jointly). Within fourteen (14) days of the date of this Opinion and Order, the submission(s) must be made. It is politely requested that the Clerk close all pending motions.
IN SO ORDER : Dated: New York, New York March 24, 2023
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