Big companies are at it again. A landmark legal decision in the case of Hachette v. Internet Archive in the U.S. has resulted in the removal of over 500,000 books from lending services, with more than 1,300 of these titles being banned or challenged. This unprecedented move follows the lawsuit filed by four major publishers—Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley—contesting the Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending practices.
Who is Internet Archive?
The Internet Archive is a non-profit library that offers free access to a wide range of digital materials, including books, movies, and websites. Its mission is to preserve these digital age artifacts and make them available for eternity. Based in San Francisco, the organization is known for its Wayback Machine, which lets users explore historical web pages, and the Open Library, which is a catalog with the aim to create a webpage for every book ever published. The Internet Archive is supported by donations and grants, and its resources are used by people all over the world for learning and entertainment.
Such archive is vital in digital preservation and access. It acts as a digital repository where important cultural, historical, and academic items are stored and made available to the public. The organization’s controlled digital lending program allows libraries to lend digital books in a way that respects copyrights, ensuring authors and publishers receive due compensation. This program is central to the Internet Archive’s work, which seeks to balance the rights of copyright holders with the need to provide access to educational and cultural materials.
The Danger
The ruling by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has favored the publishers, leading to an injunction by Judge Koeltl that prohibits the Internet Archive from lending its digitized books. This does not affect the organization’s accessibility program, which continues to serve patrons with print disabilities.
The Internet Archive is appealing the decision with the aim of restoring access to these books for all patrons. The phrase “Borrow Unavailable” now signifies that these books are inaccessible to the general public, a significant loss for readers and researchers.
Furthermore, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which spearheaded the lawsuit, has expanded its efforts to include publishers not initially involved in the suit, leading to an even more extensive list of restricted books.
Despite this setback, the Internet Archive is optimistic about the growing international support for controlled digital lending. If you wish to help their cause, you may use their recently published form to tell your story about how the project helps you and this action has affected you.
This whole situation, however, is taking money that could be used for the archival of information for other purposes, draining the org of resources, and opening a precedent that could endager it.
Plaintiff Publishers:
- Hachette Book Group
- HarperCollins
- Penguin Random House
- Wiley
Other Publishers Coordinated by the Association of American Publishers (AAP):
- American Chemical Society
- American Reading Company
- BiggerPockets Publishing
- Bloomsbury
- Bookpress Publishing
- Cambridge University Press
- Chronicle Books
- De Gruyter
- Elsevier
- Fordham University Press
- Getty Publications
- Hansen Publishing Group
- Harvard University Press
- Holiday House-Peachtree-Pixel+Ink
- Imbrifex Books
- Lynne Rienner Publishers
- Macmillan
- MedMaster
- Melville House Publishing
- Moody Publishers
- Pearson
- Princeton University Press
- Sage Publications
- Scholastic
- Simon & Schuster
- Springer
- Taylor & Francis
- Teacher Created Materials
- The American University in Cairo Press
- University of California Press
- University of Chicago Press
- University of Massachusetts Press
- University of Minnesota Press
- University of Texas Press
- University of Wisconsin Press
- University Press of Colorado
- Valancourt Books
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Wesleyan University Press
- Wolters Kluwer
- Yale University Press
Source: The Internet Archive
