Internet Archive Loses Lawsuit Against Publishing Houses in the United States

A New York appeals court on Wednesday, September 4, confirmed that the Internet Archive must stop lending e-books on a large scale without properly compensating their authors, upholding the initial March 2023 ruling that the association had appealed.

Best known for the Wayback Machine — a mass archiving service for web pages — the Internet Archive also hosts copies of other types of documents, including millions of books, which it offers for consultation through a digital lending service. In March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced many libraries to close, it launched an operation called the National Emergency Library, removing the limitation that prevented a single book from being consulted by multiple people at the same time.

Three months later, four publishers filed a complaint against these loans granted without their authorization: HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, Penguin Random House, as well as Hachette Book Group, a subsidiary of Hachette Livre France. During the hearings, Internet Archive explained that its non-commercial service was part of the American doctrine known as the fair use, which provides for exemptions to intellectual property in the context of facilitating the dissemination of ideas. An argument successively rejected by the court of first instance and then by the court of appeal.

Another complaint filed by record companies

However, this verdict may not definitively close the procedure. “We are analyzing the court’s opinion, and we will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books. », Internet Archive director of library services Chris Freeland told the Associated Press, raising the possibility of a Supreme Court challenge.

The Internet Archive is also being sued by six record companies, including Sony and Universal, who accuse it of illegally hosting thousands of copyrighted songs and recordings. At the heart of the complaint: the Great 78 Project, a community program that aims to enable the “preservation, research and discovery of 78-rpm records ” over a period from 1898 to the 1950s, notably by allowing collectors to put online digitized versions of physical copies that they own. Among the artists cited in the complaint are Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.

In May 2024, a court denied the mistrial. In July, lawyers for both sides reached out to settle the case amicably, according to the outlet Digital Music News.