A federal judge has ruled against nonprofit organization, the Internet Archive, in a case against four US publishers, including Hachette Book Group. The lawsuit stemmed from the Internet Archive’s launch of the “National Emergency Library” during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program made over 1.4 million copyrighted ebooks available for free borrowing, in response to worldwide library closures. The publishers argued that the initiative constituted “willful mass copyright infringement.” The Internet Archive argued that the program was protected under Fair Use, but Judge John G. Koeltl rejected this argument and ruled that the organization had infringed on the publishers’ copyrights. The Internet Archive plans to appeal the decision, as it believes the ruling is a blow to the historic role of libraries in society.
Court rules against Internet Archive for violating publisher copyrights by lending ebooks.
