During the pandemic in 2020, the non-profit Internet Archive started the National Emergency Library, which gave a much wider access to its scanned book archive at a time when physical libraries were being shut down entirely.

The major publishers didn't much appreciate this broadened access to copyrighted work, so they sued the hell out of the Internet Archive. Last year, a judge ruled firmly in the favor of the publishers.

Of course, the Internet Archive appealed that decision, but that didn't work out. This week, it lost its appeal.

This ruling now kills the archive's ability to lend more than one scanned library book from its archive that are not either in public domain or licensed explicitly.

This is a huge blow to the community that wishes to properly archive and make media as accessible as possible. This ruling limits access to out of print books, makes fact checking more difficult and will undoubtedly lead to some permanent loss of obscure books that would have otherwise been preventable.

^{An example of borrowing being unavailable at the Internet Archive.}

Keep in mind, this won't end with just this suit.

Corporate rights holders want to dismantle the Internet Archive completely, and a pending $412 million suit from music labels might just do the trick.

We're barreling toward a future where even the Wayback Machine, its free website archival tool, could be snuffed out. It's very clear that corporate entities don't care about the preservation or promulgation of human knowledge for the betterment of mankind — they just care about maximizing profits.

Unfortunately, the courts are willing to help them in that endeavor.

The internet reacts

An excellent thread on the Internet Archive by an actual librarian.

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— KJ Charles (@kjcharleswriter.com) Sep 5, 2024 at 10:48 AM

If we lose the internet archive we are in serious trouble. They are the only public repository of most digital media (and some physical through scans) - like @frankcifaldi.bsky.social says, 89% of all video games are not currently available to purchase.

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— Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com) Sep 4, 2024 at 1:33 PM

To be clear - I understand that this lawsuit isn't the end of the internet archive! but it does set a precedent that others can try to follow suit with, and generally makes what the internet archive does more difficult over time.

— Brandon Sheffield (@brandon.insertcredit.com) Sep 4, 2024 at 1:43 PM

The fear of piracy, much like modern copyright law, is a cudgel that giant corporations swing around to cling to the barest semblance of control. Damning our collective history in the process.

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— Joan Zahra Dark 🔥 جون زهر درك (@joandark.com) Sep 4, 2024 at 2:42 PM

Howabout instead of burning down the Internet Archive, we burn down OpenAI and its planet destroying plagiarism machines that will cause apocalyptic job losses in the millions because they will be left completely unchecked.

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— John Backflip 🏳️‍⚧️ (@foxkidsclub.bsky.social) Sep 4, 2024 at 2:21 PM

[Image: Kindel Media]