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Court Decision: Online Archives Violated Copyright Law

by Ethan Kim
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A judge from New York recently made a decision about an online archive, that was giving out copyrighted works for free without permission. Judge John G. Koeltl said that this was wrong and it had to be stopped because the archive was breaking copyright laws by making “derivative” works without permission from the copyright holder.

The Archive wasn’t creating something new with the books, but just scanning them and letting people borrow them as ebooks from its website. A judge said that an ebook created from a print book is an example of this kind of “derivative work”. The Archive, who announced it would fight back against the decision, thinks what it’s doing isn’t breaking any laws since the goal is to make information widely available.

Brewster Kahle, the founder of Internet Archive, said in a recent blog post that libraries are not just places you can go to get information from but also have something more to offer. He stated that they’re crucial for our democracy and play an important role in owning, preserving and lending books. However, he mentioned that there has recently been a decision made which will impact libraries, readers and authors negatively. Therefore, he plans to appeal it.

In June 2020, some big book companies like HarperCollins Publishers and Penguin Random House, felt mad because the Archive had a big E-Book Lending Program, called the National Emergency Library. This program opened when many libraries and bookstores were closed, due to the pandemic. Also Foxed were popular books by authors such as Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger and Terry Pratchett. So these publishers wanted to take action against this lending library program.

Some writers have spoken out in support of the emergency library, especially historian Jill Lepore. In a March 2020 essay for The New Yorker, Lepore said that if people don’t have enough money to buy books or can’t find them due to the pandemic – they should go online and borrow from the Internet Archive.

The leader of an important industry group, the Association of American Publishers, said they were really pleased with a court decision that supports the existing copyright laws.

The court said that stealing other people’s work and using it as your own is bad, like copying someone else’s book without their permission. Maria Pallante, president and CEO of the association, agrees and emphasizes that authors, publishers, and lawful markets must be respected in our global society.

The Internet Archive is a very special library. It was created back in 1996 with the purpose of saving digital historical collections and making them available to researchers, historians, scholars, and anyone else who wants to access it. It doesn’t get books like other libraries do; instead it purchases and accepts donations! This archive also stores movies, TV shows, videos, audio recordings and other cool stuff!

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