The Internet Archive has lost a legal battle which could see the whole web get a lot less freaky. The Second Circuit US Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling in favor of Hachette Book Group. Hachette sued the Internet Archive over a project which scanned library books and lent infinite copies. Hachette and other publishers argued this was “tantamount to piracy,” as Wired phrases it.
Hachette sued the Internet Archive over their National Emergency Library (NEL). The project began in 2020, as libraries were closed due to the pandemic. It was an expansion of their Open Library project, which digitizes library books and allows people to check them out like ebooks. Open Library books could only be lent one at a time, but NEL books could be borrowed by as many people as desired them. Within two months, the Internet Archive brought back lending caps, but publishers (including Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley) still sued in June 2020. A judge ruled in favor of the publishers in March 2023, prompting the Internet Archive’s appeal. Today they lost their appeal.
“We are disappointed in today’s opinion about the Internet Archive’s digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere,” Chris Freehand, the Internet Archive’s Director of Library Services, said in a statement. “We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books.” On the plus side for Internet Archive, the Court of Appeals did state in their ruling that the website is a nonprofit, rather than a commercial entity. A lawsuit filed against the Internet Archive by major music labels is still in court, which could cost the site up to $400 million.
