After losing in court, the Internet Archive has now decided to stop taking legal action to resolve digital book lending issues. The nonprofit will comply with a 2nd Circuit ruling that limits users’ choices for digital books at the request of publishers.
The Internet Archive (IA) recently published an article on its official blog confirming that the "Hachette v. Internet Archive" case has finally come to an end. The group, founded in 1996, was "deeply disappointed" by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals' recent decision but decided not to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.
A major US publisher has filed a lawsuit over the IA's Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) system, a lending program where users can "borrow" digital copies of physical books the organization has purchased over the years. Although this restriction has been partially relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of digital copies available for loan is the same as the number of copies owned by IA.
Traditional libraries can offer similar lending services, but they need to pay licensing fees to publishers. The Internet Archive has tried to argue that these fees are too expensive, claiming that low-income users benefit from its program. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately sided with the publishers, forcing the archive to remove 500,000 books from the CDL and pay an undisclosed sum to ultimately settle the case.
The American Archives Association now says it will continue to honor its agreement with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to remove specific books from its lending service after receiving direct requests from AAP members. The archive is trying to rope in readers, writers and other publishers in its free digital lending campaign, sending a petition with more than 120,000 signatures to the Association of American Publishers to warn of the case's adverse effects.
Despite legal setbacks and a massive hack over the past few weeks, the archive is still standing. Its director of library services, Chris Freeland, confirmed that the organization will continue to advocate for a more accessible digital book market. Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle initially warned publishers that the organization could be destroyed. He also warned that the lawsuit could shut down other digital libraries.
Now that Hachette v. Internet Archive has come to an end, the IA will hopefully get back to preserving vast troves of digital artifacts, as it has been doing for years. The Archives offers more than just e-books, and the number of collections of curiosity or historical significance acquired by the organization continues to grow.