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Publishers Sue the Internet Archive Over its Open Library, Declare it a Pirate Site
Several major publishers have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in a New York court targeting the Internet Archive's Open Library. According to the complaint, the project is a massive and willful infringement project that amounts to little more than a regular pirate site.
Back in March, the Internet Archive responded to the coronavirus pandemic by offering a new service to help "displaced learners".
Combining scanned books from three libraries, the Archive offered unlimited borrowing of more than a million books, so that people could continue to learn while in quarantine.
While the move was welcomed by those in favor of open access to education, publishers and pro-copyright groups slammed the decision, with some describing it as an attempt to bend copyright law and others declaring the project as mass-scale piracy.
Today, major publishers Hachette Book Group, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Penguin Random House LLC went to war with the project by filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive and five 'Doe' defendants in a New York court.
Complaint (PDF).
See also: Lawsuit over online book lending could bankrupt Internet Archive
Previously: Internet Archive's Open Library Now Supports Full-Text Searches for All 4+ Million Items
Internet Archive Suspends E-Book Lending "Waiting Lists" During U.S. National Emergency
Authors Fume as Online Library "Lends" Unlimited Free Books
University Libraries Offer Online "Lending" of Scanned In-Copyright Books
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 04 2020, @12:51AM (1 child)
I am a content creator.
When I release my creations into the public, I consider them ads for what I can do. If someone wants to retain me for private and confidential work, that is between me and them.
I support Copyright for, say, ten years, for theatrical works and specific mechanizations of some work, like how a vise-grip toggling mechanism is integrated into it's design, knowing that toggling mechanisms themselves are public by now.
More and more, I am seeing the basic tenents of copyright being used to enforce public ignorance for the immediate benefit of a very few.
Gutenberg probably wins the all time prize for enabling copyright violation, without it, the internet and our way of life probably would not be.
Ignorance is not bliss.
I see what I see only because I stand on the shoulders of those before me. And this paradise we are building can collapse like a Tower of Babel should too many of us become ignorant and cannot maintain the infrastructure our parents left us.
A bunch of Congressmen do not have the power to pen law to compel broken infrastructure to continue to function. Already, way too many of us in this nation are ignorant in the matters as to how to keep our stuff running, and the remnants of the baby boomers who grew up in the heyday of science are dying out.
Who will fix your stuff?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Funny) by kazzie on Thursday June 04 2020, @04:03PM
I'm glad you're content.