The Internet Archive, a digital library that lends books for free online, has lost its appeal in a lawsuit brought by book publishers. This means over 500,000 books will no longer be available for public access through the Internet Archive’s Free Digital Library. The Free Digital Library loans about 70,000 books daily, totaling 25 million books a year to 5.9 million users worldwide.
The books are not typical e-books but scanned copies of physical books owned by the Archive or related contributors. The legal dispute involves over 3.2 million digital copies of copyrighted books. While it is legal to loan physical books, copying and distributing digital versions of copyrighted works is typically illegal.
The lawsuit focused on whether the Free Digital Library’s practice fell under “Fair Use,” which permits limited use of copyrighted material without permission under certain conditions. The court considered whether the Internet Archive’s actions were “transformative,” meaning whether they created something new that was different from the original work.
Internet Archive scales back access
The Internet Archive argued that converting books to electronic files was transformative because it made the books accessible to a wider audience. However, the court ruled that simply converting a book to an electronic format did not significantly alter the original content. The judges expressed concern that allowing the Internet Archive to continue its practice would undermine copyright protection, affecting the financial incentives for authors and publishers.
Without these incentives, the production of new works could diminish. Some authors and scholars supported the Internet Archive’s mission, arguing that copyright laws were intended to enhance the spread of knowledge. While financial incentives encourage the creation of new works, they also restrict the availability of existing ones, particularly when the works are no longer economically beneficial.
This case points to a larger issue with current copyright terms, which have been extended multiple times and now often last around a century. These extended terms can prevent older works from becoming publicly accessible, even if they are no longer available for sale or generating revenue for the original creators. The court’s decision upholds the current standards of copyright protection, but it also highlights the ongoing debate about finding a balance between incentivizing new creations and making existing works widely accessible for the greater good of societal knowledge.
