Hachette v. Internet Archive
Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 20-cv-4160 (JGK), 2023 WL 2623787 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), is a case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the Internet Archive committed copyright infringement by scanning and distributing copies of books online. Stemming from the creation of the National Emergency Library (NEL) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing companies Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley alleged that the Internet Archive's Open Library and National Emergency Library facilitated copyright infringement. The case involves the fair use of controlled digital lending (CDL) systems.[1]
Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive
Hachette Book Group Inc., et al. v. Internet Archive, et al.
On March 25, 2023, the court ruled against the Internet Archive.[2] In August 2023, the parties reached a negotiated judgment, including a permanent injunction preventing the Internet Archive from distributing some of the plaintiffs' books.[3] In September 2023, the Internet Archive appealed the decision.[4]
Background[edit]
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving knowledge and based in San Francisco, California; the Archive maintains Open Library, a digital library index and lending system. As many of the works in the Internet Archive are under copyright, the Archive uses a controlled digital lending (CDL) system, a practice that relies upon digital rights management (DRM) to prevent unauthorized downloading or copying of copyrighted works. Open Library can generate digitized material (ebooks) from print copy. The Open Library CDL system ensures that only one digital copy is in use for each print copy or otherwise authorized ebook copy available.
On March 24, 2020, as a result of shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet Archive opened the National Emergency Library, removing the waitlists used in Open Library and expanding access to these books for all readers. Two months later on June 1, the National Emergency Library (NEL) was met with a lawsuit from four book publishers. Two weeks after that, June 16, the Internet Archive closed the NEL,[5] and the prior Open Library CDL system resumed after the 12 weeks of NEL usage.
Other responses[edit]
Association of American Publishers[edit]
The Association of American Publishers released a press statement that said, "In celebrating the opinion, we also thank the thousands of public libraries across the country that serve their communities everyday through lawful eBook licenses. We hope the opinion will prove educational to the defendant and anyone else who finds public laws inconvenient to their own interests."[30] The AAP has been critical of the Internet Archive for suggesting that libraries engage in the same practices that they do, arguing that only 13 public libraries in the USA had cooperated with the Open Library.[31]