Publishers, Internet Archive agree to streamline digital book-lending case

Lagardere SA

11/08/2023 22:25

* 
      Archive agrees to permanent injunction, payment if it
loses
appeal
    

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      Judge ruled in March that Archive's program infringed
copyrights
    

  
    By Blake Brittain
       Aug 11 (Reuters) - The Internet Archive and a group of
leading book publishers told a Manhattan federal court on Friday
that they have resolved aspects of their legal battle over the
Archive's digital lending of their scanned books.
    If accepted, the consent judgment would settle questions
over potential money damages in the case and the scope of a ban
on the Archive's lending and would clear the way for the Archive
to appeal U.S. District Judge John Koeltl's decision that it
infringed the publishers' copyrights.
    The proposed order would require the Archive to pay
Lagardere SCA's  LAGA.PA  Hachette Book Group, News Corp's
 NWSA.O  HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons  WLY.N  and
Bertelsmann SE & Co's  BTGGg.F  Penguin Random House an
undisclosed amount of money if it loses its appeal.
    The order would also permanently block the Archive from
lending out copies of the publishers' books without permission,
pending the result of the appeal. They asked Koeltl to resolve a
dispute over whether the order will apply only to the
publishers' books that are already available for electronic
licensing or books commercially available in any format.
    The Internet Archive said in a blog post that the fight was
"far from over," and founder Brewster Kahle said in a statement
that "we must have strong libraries, which is why we are
appealing this decision."
    Maria Pallante, the CEO of the Association of American
Publishers, said in a statement that the plaintiffs were
"extremely pleased" with the proposed injunction, which will
"extend not only to the Plaintiffs' 127 works in suit but also
to thousands of other literary works in their catalogs."
    The publishers sued in 2020 over the Archive's free lending
of scanned copies of their print books, which began after
libraries closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    The Archive compared its "controlled digital lending" to
traditional library lending and argued its practices were
protected by the copyright doctrine of fair use, which allows
for the unlicensed use of others' works in some circumstances. 
    The publishers have called the Archive's program a front for
mass copyright infringement.
    Koeltl said in March that the Archive did not warrant
fair-use protection from the publishers' case, as its copies
merely replaced authorized e-books that publishers license to
traditional libraries.
    
    The case is Hachette Book Group Inc v. Internet Archive,
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York,
1:20-cv-04160.
    For the Internet Archive: Joe Gratz of Morrison & Foerster
    For the publishers: Elizabeth McNamara of Davis Wright
Tremaine
    
    Read more:
    Internet Archive's digital book lending violates copyrights,
US judge rules
    Internet Archive faces skeptical judge in publishers'
copyright lawsuit