Publishers suing Internet Archive over e-book lending
A very 21st century book battle is playing out in a New York court. It all has to do with a powerful publisher being upset with an online book lending service and its use of their book. Sharon Crowley live in the newsroom with the details. Sharon. Yes, Steve and Teresa, the country's major book publishers accusing the nonprofit Internet Archive of digital piracy. A New York federal judge is hearing the case. The ruling could have far-reaching effects on when it comes to lending e-books.
A book publisher is taking the founder of the digital nonprofit library called Internet Archive to court over how it's lending e-books. When libraries closed down during the pandemic, Internet Archive expanded digitizing books. The so-called National Emergency Library allowed unlimited members of readers to check out e-books for a two-week lending period. Publishers calling it digital piracy. The publishing houses are suing, saying it hurts authors and is a mass copyright infringement. Lawyers arguing in just a few clicks, any Internet-connected user can download complete digital copies of in-copyright books. Nobody will be able to prop it off of their creative works of authorship.
Ken Belkin is a constitutional law attorney here in New York City. People should have access to books, but what they're doing is giving people copies of these books to anyone who wants them. There's nothing being paid to these publishing houses. Their efforts to market and profit off of these works of authorship are being effectively rendered null and void. In court, lawyers representing Internet Archive compared the controlled digital lending of the copies to traditional library lending. Ahead of the proceeding, the group's founder issuing a virtual statement, pushing back against critics. The dream of the Internet was to democratize access to knowledge.
But if the big publishers have their way, excessive corporate control will be the nightmare of the Internet. So there is a petition online supporting Internet Archive and it's right to own books. Right now, the Battle for Libraries petition has about 11,000 signatures. Theresa and Steve. Interesting story, all right.
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