Major book publishers defeat Internet Archive appeal over digital scanning
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court sided with four major book publishers that accused the nonprofit Internet Archive of illegally scanning copyrighted works and lending them to the public online for free and without permission.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed with Hachette Book Group LAGA.PA, HarperCollins Publishers NWSA.O, John Wiley & Sons WLY.N and Penguin Random House BTGGg.F that the archive's "large scale" copying and distribution of entire books did not amount to "fair use."
Publishers accused the nonprofit of infringing copyrights in 127 books from authors like Malcolm Gladwell, C.S. Lewis, Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger and Elie Wiesel, by making the books freely available through its Free Digital Library.
The archive, which hosts more than 3.2 million copies of copyrighted books on its website, contended that the library was transformative because it made lending more convenient and served the public interest by promoting "access to knowledge."
But in a 59-page decision on Wednesday, Circuit Judge Beth Robinson said the archive merely supplanted the original books rather than transform them into "something new."
She said making books available for free harmed publishers and would "undoubtedly negatively impact the public," by taking away the incentive for many consumers and libraries to pay for books and for many authors to produce new works.
Robinson quoted a declaration from Sandra Cisneros, who wrote the best-selling novel "The House on Mango Street," that finding her works available for free online "was like I had gone to a pawn shop and seen my stolen possessions on sale."
The Internet Archive was appealing a March 2023 ruling from U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan.
"We are reviewing the court's opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend and preserve books," said Chris Freeland, the archive's director of library services.
Maria Pallante, president of the Association of American Publishers, said the decision "reinforced the indispensable role of authors and publishers in society" and was a major victory for authors, publishers and readers.
The Internet Archive limits lending from its Free Digital Library to one "checkout" for each physical book in storage.
It temporarily expanded lending in 2020, allowing checkouts by up to 10,000 users at a time, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused mass closures of schools, libraries and bookstores.
The expansion ended on June 16, 2020, two weeks after the publishers sued.
The case is Hachette Book Group Inc et al v. Internet Archive, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 23-1260.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
