Saying that the Internet Archive operates ‘the digital equivalent of traditional library lending,’ the nonprofit responds to four publishers’ test of ‘Controlled Digital Lending.
(29 Jul 2020) Following the June 1 filing of a copyright infringement lawsuit by four publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers—including three of the Big Five—the Internet Archive has made its scheduled response and released to news media today (July 29) a copy of its filing with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
As Publishing Perspectives readers will remember, this is the suit that asks the court to enjoin the archive’s scanning, public display, and distribution of whole literary works—which it offers to the public through what the association terms “global-facing businesses” branded the Open Library and National Emergency Library. These are found at both openlibrary.org and archive.org.
After the suit was filed at the beginning of last month, the archive’s National Emergency Library—which had been presented as a response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic—was closed on June 16 by Brewster Kahle, the founder and head of the nonprofit, which is based in San Francisco. That closure came two weeks ahead of The June 30 date originally announced as when the Emergency Library would be shuttered.
Here’s the press release from the Internet Archive.
Read the full comments from Publishing Perspectives here.
