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News


SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISORS THROW SUPPORT BEHIND INTERNET ARCHIVE AS IT FIGHTS
COPYRIGHT RULING


Sydney Johnson
Apr 19
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Dozens of supporters rallied outside the Internet Archive's San Francisco
library on April 8 to defend the nonprofit's free e-book lending project. (S.
Smith Patrick/Courtesy Internet Archive)

San Francisco leaders are throwing their support behind the threatened Internet
Archive, a free digital library headquartered in San Francisco’s Richmond
District.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution (PDF) in
support of the archive, which is fighting a federal ruling from late March, when
U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York
sided with publishers who sued the nonprofit for copyright violation. The
resolution next heads to Mayor London Breed for approval. Then, Chan said, it
will be referred to the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress for support.

“At a time when we are seeing an increase in censorship and book bans across the
country, we must move to preserve free access to information,” Supervisor Connie
Chan, who authored the resolution and represents the Richmond District, said in
a press release. “I am proud to stand with the Internet Archive, our Richmond
District neighbor, and digital libraries throughout the United States.”

Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library and archive
that preserves books, music, film, webpages and many more media artifacts and
makes them publicly available for free. It holds nearly 41 million books and
counting, and lends those as e-books on a one-to-one basis referred to as
“controlled digital lending.”

But in 2020, when in-person libraries were largely closed due to the pandemic,
the archive removed waitlists for its e-books so more people could access them.
It ended that practice in June of the same year, but by then, four of the
largest publishing houses had sued the Internet Archive for copyright
infringement.



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Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and Wiley argued that
the archive’s so-called Open Library ignores licensing fees that libraries are
supposed to pay publishers for texts that are not in the public domain.

The publishers specifically complained about 127 books not under public domain
(PDF) that are stored and offered freely on the archive, by authors such as
Sylvia Plath, Jon Krakauer, Toni Morrison, Malcolm Gladwell, C.S. Lewis and J.D.
Salinger.

Because libraries had already paid licensing fees for the print books that the
archive scans as part of the Open Library project, the nonprofit argued its
one-to-one lending system constitutes fair use.

But Koeltl agreed with the publishers. “IA’s fair use defense rests on the
notion that lawfully acquiring a copyrighted print book entitles the recipient
to make an unauthorized copy and distribute it in place of the print book, so
long as it does not simultaneously lend the print book,” Koeltl said in his
ruling (PDF). “But no case or legal principle supports that notion. Every
authority points the other direction.”

The Internet Archive is now appealing that case with a boost from local leaders
and community members.



SF-Based Internet Archive Is Fighting a Ruling That Could Change the Future of
Digital Libraries

“It’s a sad day that we have to be here to talk about the importance of
maintaining access to information through libraries,” Brewster Kahle, founder
and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, said in the press announcement.
“We must stand firm in our commitment to providing Universal Access to All
Knowledge.”

Supporters of the Internet Archive held a rally on the steps of its San
Francisco-based library and museum on April 8. The archive also operates a
warehouse in the city of Richmond where millions of books donated by libraries
and individuals are stored.



Chan’s resolution recognized “the irreplaceable public value of libraries,
including online libraries like the Internet Archive, and the essential rights
of all libraries to own, preserve, and lend both digital and print books to the
residents of San Francisco and the wider public.”



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