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https://www.eff.org/press/releases/internet-archive-seeks-summary-judgment-federal-lawsuit-filed-publishing-companies>
"SAN FRANCISCO—The Internet Archive has asked a federal judge to rule in its
favor and end a radical lawsuit, filed by four major publishing companies, that
aims to criminalize library lending.
The Internet Archive, headquartered in San Francisco, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
library which preserves and provides access to cultural artifacts of all kinds
in electronic form. The motion for summary judgment, filed Thursday in the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) and Durie Tangri LLP, explains that the Archive’s Controlled
Digital Lending (CDL) program is a lawful fair use that preserves traditional
library lending in the digital world.
The brief explains how the Internet Archive is advancing the purposes of
copyright law by furthering public access to knowledge and facilitating the
creation of new creative and scholarly works. The Internet Archive’s digital
lending hasn’t cost the publishers one penny in revenues; in fact, concrete
evidence shows that the Archive’s digital lending does not and will not harm
the market for books.
“Should we stop libraries from owning and lending books? No,” said Brewster
Kahle, the Internet Archive’s founder and digital librarian. “We need libraries
to be independent and strong, now more than ever, in a time of misinformation
and challenges to democracy. That’s why we are defending the rights of
libraries to serve our patrons where they are, online.”
Through CDL, the Internet Archive and other libraries make and lend out digital
scans of print books in their collections, subject to strict technical
controls. Each book loaned via CDL has already been bought and paid for, so
authors and publishers have already been fully compensated for those books.
Nonetheless, publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random
House sued the Archive in 2020, claiming incorrectly that CDL violates their
copyrights."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
