The Internet Archive (The Internet Archive) in the new crown epidemic in 2020, announced a limited opening of 1.4 million copyrighted books to borrow. This move was met with a lawsuit from book publishers, and a U.S. court recently pronounced the lawsuit, ruling that The Internet Archive.
In the case of Hachette v. Internet Archive, U.S. Federal Judge John G. Koeltl ruled against the Internet Archive, finding that the site did not have the right to scan books and lend them out as if they were in a library.
Judge Koeltl ruled that the Internet Archive had merely created a “derivative work” and therefore needed to obtain authorization from the book’s copyright owner (publisher) before lending it out through its National Emergency Library Program.
The Internet Archive said it would appeal. Chris Freeland, director of the Internet Archive, wrote an official blog post.
The lower U.S. court's decision today is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve. This decision affects libraries across the United States and hurts authors for whom this unfair licensing model is the only way to read their works online.