An appeals court upheld the earlier court’s ruling that the online Internet Archive violated copyright law by scanning and uploading digital books without the publishers’ consent.
Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House were the four major publishers that filed a lawsuit against the Archive in the year 2020. The lawsuit claimed that the Archive had illegally distributed free copies of more than one hundred books, including works of fiction written by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. In response, the Archive asserted its protection under the fair use legislation.
In 2023, a judge from the United States District Court for the District of Manhattan made a decision that was favourable to the publishers and awarded them a permanent injunction. On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reached a similar conclusion and posed the following question: Did the Internet Archive’s lending program, dubbed a “National Emergency Library” and launched early in the pandemic, demonstrate fair use?
The appeals court concluded that the answer is “no” after applying the pertinent provisions of the Copyright Act as well as precedents that are binding from the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit.
Maria Pallante, the president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers, issued a statement on Wednesday in which she referred to the ruling as a triumph for the publishing community or publishers.
Pallante said that the appellate court’s verdict today “reminds us in no uncertain terms that infringement is both costly and antithetical to the public interest.” “Today’s decision upholds the rights of authors and publishers to license and receive compensation for their books and other creative works.”
