Internet Archive's Legal Fights Are Over, But Its Founder Mourns What Was Lost (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0179954002
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/03/1930232/internet-archives-legal-fights-are-over-but-its-founder-mourns-what-was-lost
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/the-internet-archive-survived-major-copyright-losses-whats-next/
In 2024, the Archive lost its final appeal in a lawsuit brought by book publishers over its e-book lending model. Damages could have topped $400 million before publishers announced a confidential settlement. Last month, the organization [5]settled another suit over its Great 78 Project after music publishers sought damages of up to $700 million. That settlement was also confidential. In both cases, the Archive's experts challenged publishers' estimates as massively inflated.
Kahle had envisioned the Open Library as a way for Wikipedia to link to book scans and help researchers reference e-books. The Archive wanted to deepen Wikipedia's authority as a research tool by surfacing information often buried in books. "That's what they really succeeded at -- to make sure that Wikipedia readers don't get access to books," Kahle said of the publishers. He thinks "the world became stupider" when the Open Library was gutted. The Archive is now expanding Democracy's Library, a free online compendium of government research and publications that will be linked in Wikipedia articles.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/21/2324239/internet-archive-celebrates-1-trillion-web-pages-archived
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/07/25/1735224/internet-archive-designated-as-a-federal-depository-library
[3] https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/09/04/1728215/internet-archive-digital-lending-isnt-fair-use-2nd-cir-says
[4] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/11/the-internet-archive-survived-major-copyright-losses-whats-next/
[5] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/09/15/228226/internet-archive-ends-legal-battle-with-record-labels-over-historic-recordings
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
its a library
Re:What was justification for Open Library? (Score:5, Funny)
> its a library
But, borrowing from a library without paying someone is stealing! This will stop the author, dead for half a century, from producing further works! And reading a book you own for second time without paying again is stealing, too!
Re:What was justification for Open Library? (Score:5, Informative)
It's in the name.
Re: (Score:2)
During COVID they decided that copyright didn't matter and knowingly copied copyrighted works too. Once they realized that was a bad idea, they decided that since format shifting was fair use for the individual that they could do it themselves and then lend out the digital copy. Which was a wholly different item than the original physical copy that still existed and the courts weren't buying it.
The word "open" does not apply to this library in the sense of out of copyright, for the most part. These were
Five-year copyright term is fair and useful (Score:1, Interesting)
We, the people, can justifiably give creators ( and only actual creators ) a five-year copyright term in order to do what copyright is meant to do - promote creativity.
Any longer term does NOT promote creativity, and giving rights to non-creators just fills their pockets.
Until we have a five-year copyright term, any and every means of sharing the creativity of mankind is justified.
So billionaires, please make an offshore backup of archive.org.
And the rest of us should Pirate On.
When AI hoovers up "the world" (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a business model. When humans do it, it is copyright infringement.
Book Scanner Recommendations? (Score:4, Insightful)
We heard a while back about Google making a nondestructive book scanner that used puffs of air to turn pages and multiple cameras with stitching algorithms.
Is there a home version that people can recommend, product or build plans?
I have at least a hundred out-of-print books, some on taboo subjects, that I'd love to be able to scan and lend out privately.
Frankly this would be a good item to lend around; I'd only need one for a few days a year.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions (Score:2)
Am I misunderstanding something? I prefer that the laws of the people be adhered to, no matter the good intentions of the transgressor. If our laws are that far off, they can be changed, if the people see fit to do so.
Re: (Score:3)
> Am I misunderstanding something? I prefer that the laws of the people be adhered to, no matter the good intentions of the transgressor. If our laws are that far off, they can be changed, if the people see fit to do so.
Stupid laws should be widely ignored. Granted that will rarely get them changed, but blindly obeying will never get them changed.
Re: (Score:1)
Are you saying all copyright laws are stupid? Because thats what the Internet Archive unilaterally decided in these cases.
Its not just the usual issue about length of copyright term, because the IA were sharing (and initially they had no way to enforce the sharing, so really it was just distributing) scans of books that were both old and brand new.
So if you are saying all copyright laws are stupid, what else do you think shouldn't be a law? All property law full stop? Lets eliminate ownership entirely?
Fuck this guy (Score:3)
This guy specifically invited this result with his "All copyright is void because Covid and we say so" bullshit, and his surprised Pikachu face and heartfelt appeals are infuriating. He hasn't just damaged the Archive, his moronic actions killed the idea of format shifting being legally acceptable.
Torrent (Score:3)
Please seed a torrent with all the books. We need decentralized solutions anyway.
Re: (Score:1)
usa ruining it for everyone, again