07/09/2024
If you've followed recent news on social media, you've probably seen a post or two about a legal battle involving The Internet Archive.
Now what even is the Internet Archive? what was the legal battle all about? and what are the consequences? let's find out!
Definition: The Internet Archive:
The Internet Archive is a digital library. Think of it as the library of Alexanderia. Languages, peoples, history, art, and entire cultures depend on the archive to preserve itself into the modern era and beyond.
over 20,000,000 freely downloadable books and texts and a collection of 2.3 million modern eBooks that can be borrowed by anyone with a free archive.org account.
Quoting the website:
"Since 2005, the Internet Archive has collaborated and built digital collections with over 1,100 Library Institutions and other content providers. Partnerships include: Boston Public Library, the Library of Congress and the Lancaster County's Historical Society. These collections are digitized from various mediatypes including: microfilm and microfiche, journals and serial publications, and a wide variety of archival material. Significant contributions have come from partners in North America (American and Canadian Libraries), Europe and Asia, representing more than 184 languages."
The Internet Archive also encourages its global community to contribute physical items, as well as uploading digital materials directly to the Internet Archive. Meaning that "its primary goal is the accessibility of knowledge to all."
Why does IA pose a problem to publishers? and why hatchette, penguin & others sued IA?
Let's go back to 2020 when four major publishers — Hachette, Penguin Random House, Wiley, and HarperCollins — sued the Internet Archive over claims that its digital library constitutes “willful digital piracy on an industrial scale.” Avoiding the piracy allegations, the library was based on a "controlled digital lending" where each loan corresponds to a physically purchased book held in a library.
However, The IA launched the National Emergency Library back during the covid pandemic, allowing a countless number of individuals the access to the same copies of ebooks, which soon led to the four publishers to unite in filing a case against the IA.
The Second Circuit Court’s argument was as shown below:
"On one hand, eBook licensing fees may impose a burden on libraries and reduce access to creative work. On the other hand, authors have a right to be compensated in connection with the copying and distribution of their original creations. Congress balanced these “competing claims upon the public interest” in the Copyright Act. We must uphold that balance here."
Last year, a federal judge decision was that the IA doesn’t have the right to scan and lend out books in the same way a physical library would. In an online post, Chris Freeland, the director of library services at the Internet Archive, wrote: "We are disappointed in today’s opinion about the Internet Archive’s digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere".
What are the consequences? And who are the good guys here?
After The IA lost its appeal against penguin & co, More than 500,000 books have been taken out of lending, including more than 1,300 banned and challenged books, including books like 1984 & Fahrenheit 451.
Some see this as a slap in the face to intellectual freedom & also an affront to the principles of fair use and the public domain, but also that the publishers' argument that sharing copyrighted works online is illegal is a thinly veiled attempt to stifle competition and maintain their stranglehold on the market, marking it as another case of corporal greed and capitalism taking over knowledge, hiding it from the public and monetizing of it.
"The Internet Archive's fight is not over, and we must stand in solidarity with them. We must demand that our governments and institutions prioritize the public's right to knowledge and challenge the corporate interests that seek to control it. The future of reading and learning depends on it!!!"
While others argue that this move by the publishers, benefits artists, writers, and authors who didn't consent for their entire life's work to be lent out for free without compensation.
In summary, this is not a case of black & white. On one hand, It's evident that corporate greed is on the rise which poses a danger to the geneal public and their power but on the other, many writers, authors...etc live mainly of their works, meaning they cannot afford to let that be given to the general public for free even if it was for good causes.
Abdullah Fawal
