UPDATE: On August 11, a group of major record labels sued the Internet Archive over its Great 78 Program (https://great78.archive.org/) which digitizes vintage 78 rpm recordings from the1890s to 1950s for preservation and research. Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and other record labels are demanding removal of copyrighted recordings and damages of close to $400 million.

In another copyright lawsuit over the Internet Archive’s book lending program, Hachette vs. Internet Archive (https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive), a federal district court judge ruled against the Internet Archive in March 2023. On August 11, the judge issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the Internet Archive from lending these publishers’ in-copyright, digitally available books. If the judgment is upheld on appeal, Internet Archive will make a confidential monetary payment to the plaintiffs substantially compensating them for their significant attorney’s fees and costs in the action since 2020.

We want you to know the fight is far from over. The Internet Archive will appeal.

In response the Internet Archive’s Digital Librarian, Brewster Kahle, issued this statement: “Libraries are under attack at unprecedented scale today, from book bans to defunding to overzealous lawsuits like the one brought against our library. These efforts are cutting off the public’s access to truth at a key time in our democracy. We must have strong libraries, which is why we are appealing this decision.”

At stake is your access to knowledge which is the very foundation of democratic society. Your support for the Internet Archive will help us appeal these ruinous lawsuits.

BACKGROUND:

For 26 years, the [Internet Archive] (https://archive.org/) has served as the Internet’s library, with our mission to provide “universal access to all knowledge,” free to all. You may know us best through the Wayback Machine, our archive of the World Wide Web dating back to 1996. Or as a leader of the Decentralized Web movement. We are also the home to six million digitized books and have been lending them on a one-reader-at-a-time basis for nearly a decade. For many who cannot afford to buy books or reach a physical library, the Internet Archive is a lifeline. Case in point: in March 2020 when, COVID had shut down 90%+ of all the world’s libraries and schools, the Internet Archive stepped up to create the National Emergency Library – an act of public service that author and historian Jill Lepore called a “gift to readers everywhere.” That’s when four of the world’s largest publishers sued us, claiming our library violated their copyrights, despite the fact that we have never made any money from lending out books.

The Internet Archive is being sued for doing what libraries have always done – lending books for free. Our digital book lending service is based on the widespread library practice called Controlled Digital Lending, internationally recognized by libraries as reasonable and necessary. The publishers suing us and the media conglomerates who own them, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Bertelsmann, want to cut off the public’s access to knowledge, information and truth at a moment when our democratic society is faltering. . If they prevail, they will shut down hundreds if not thousands of other library lending programs engaging in CDL.

This March, we lost the first round of Hachette v Internet Archive. But we will continue to fight this lawsuit because it is about more than just the Internet Archive’s future. It’s about open access to knowledge via Web 3. It’s about the future of all libraries to survive and even flourish in the digital era. Publishers are trying to end libraries' ownership of their own collections. Instead, publishers want to rent digital books to libraries, like Netflix rents movies. They want to control our cultural commons for their own commercial benefit.

Recently, Congressional leaders have launched an investigation into the unfair ebook practices of major publishers, including those who are suing us. And state legislatures have tried to step in to regulate the publishers, requiring them to license ebooks to libraries under “reasonable terms.” The publishers sued to stop those state laws. In many ways, Hachette v. Internet Archive will determine whether or not libraries can do what we’ve always done: buy, lend and preserve materials for the public. That’s why our nonprofit library needs your support.

Of course, the Internet Archive does more than lend books. We invented and maintain the Wayback Machine, an archive of 804 billion web pages used by millions. After Aaron Swartz founded the open source project Open Library at the Internet Archive, we have carried out Aaron’s vision to make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world. We are home to the Live Music Archive and vintage games and software. In order to store close to 100 petabytes of data, we maintain our own servers and back-ups. And since 2016, the Internet Archive has been a leader in the movement to build a better, decentralized web.

Your donations make all of our work possible. And this year, your support will help to pay the millions of dollars in legal fees needed to fight for the clear-cut right to lend digitized books to those who need them.