A group of librarians argue the Internet Archive is a library, saying that the four major publishers' lawsuit threatens the development of digital collections
A major lawsuit against the nonprofit Internet Archive threatens the future of all libraries. Chrisfreeland / Internet Archive Blogs : Here's how to participate in Monday's oral arguments Tweets: @fightfortheftr : TODAY: It's time to rally for #InternetArchive. Use Wayback Machine? Listen to music or enjoy 37 million free texts? Wikipedia citations? Time to speak up about the nonprofit behind core Internet infrastructure and demand #DigitalRightsForLibraries at https://battleforlibraries.com/ @internetarchive : We're going to court TOMORROW to defend the digital rights of all libraries! @LibraryFutures will be hosting a live blog during oral argument and a live discussion afterwards. Here's how to participate: https://blog.archive.org/... @fightfortheftr : Today at 1 ET @InternetArchive will be fighting an existential legal battle for FOUR MILLION BOOKS that could be DELETED FOREVER. History's largest book burning, but no one's talking about it bc it's happening online. Take action and change that: https://battleforlibraries.com/ @internetarchive : 🗣 Show your support by participating in today's oral arguments, plus a post-argument discussion hosted by @libraryfutures: https://blog.archive.org/... #EmpoweringLibraries @comfysaur : The outcome of this lawsuit could set a really bad precedent going forward, the Internet Archive is a necessity for the future, please support them! https://twitter.com/... Aram Shabanian / @shabanianaram : And yeah, sometimes people want to check the entirety of a book out before they purchase a copy. I do it ALL THE TIME. And many of the books in question are EXTREMELY hard to find in print. This is just putting up barriers to public knowledge, something we can scarcely afford rn. Matthew Keys / @matthewkeyslive : I'm proud to support @internetarchive. I've donated in the past, and will do so in the future. Their products are instrumental to my work as a journalist/reporter. They are, absolutely, a library. https://www.insidehighered.com/ ... Aram Shabanian / @shabanianaram : This is so backwards. IRL libraries also offer you free copies of books on limited-loan basis. Just like @internetarchive. Book publishers act just as archaically as the MPAA/RIAA. Get with the program. The world has changed. People want digital copies of things. https://twitter.com/... Joanna Blackhart / @joannablackhart : This is an *incredibly* important case because it will have direct ramifications on libraries being able to ‘rent’ out digital data — I.E. all those nintendo games that Big N is doing their damndest to destroy. https://twitter.com/... Matthew Keys / @matthewkeyslive : Learn more about @internetarchive's day in court and the ongoing battle to preserve digital libraries here: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/ @spookysouthcoll : 🧵 So this is super important to anyone who likes to have #freebooks Please go read, then tweet, share on FB or IG, tag your fav #booknerd #bibliophile and #researchers this is important, they're trying to limit places like https://archive.org/ https://blog.archive.org/... @bangtan_library : Sign the petition if you care about preserving books digitally and providing access to people all over the world! 📚 Join authors like Neil Gaiman, lyricists like Peter Gabriel, librarians everywhere (🤓), and “feisty, queer women-led” organization Fight for the Future! https://twitter.com/... Jan Forney / @jan_forney : Here's how to participate in Monday's oral arguments - Internet Archives are defending public access to their digital libraries TOMORROW🫣 Came here to access free book on Iran contra - including the October surprise of Reagan Bush Casey Connally https://blog.archive.org/... @internetarchive : If the publishers win the lawsuit against our library, international scholars lose 🌍 Researchers worldwide rely on #controlleddigitallending for their work, particularly those who cannot access a physical library. Join in Monday: https://blog.archive.org/... #EmpoweringLibraries https://twitter.com/... Nazlin Bhimani / @nazlinbhimani : #Librarians should stand with the Internet Archive - it's being sued by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons Inc., and Penguin Random House because they assert its not a real library. It is! https://www.insidehighered.com/ ... @yeenie_mcbeenie : I can't believe it's possible for Chuck Wendig's legacy to go from “dude who wrote a bad Star Wars book” to “dude who made art and information less accessible for society” https://twitter.com/... @fireh9lly : The Internet Archive preserves so much ephemera, and as someone researching pop music crazes of the 2000s, I have found so much information on there that I never would have been able to find in a conventional library. Please support #DigitalRightsForLibraries https://twitter.com/... @g0ro4 : I can't stress enough how essential this is. Copyright laws in the digital age have failed authors, artists, creativity, and archiving. The Internet Archive needs to win to set a precedent. Support freedom of access to culture. https://twitter.com/... @write4research : Which public interested knowledge publishers are suing the Internet Archive in the USA for not being a library? Step forward into the headlights Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons Inc., & Penguin Random House - a lovely crew https://www.insidehighered.com/ ... @pinksheep752 : guys, this ISN'T just about books... it's about ALL sorts of media, INCLUDING VIDEO GAMES!! If IA loses then we could be left with a BUNCH of easy ways to access not only console games, but also PC games and mobile games getting taken down! Do we REALLY want that? No? THEN SIGN IT https://twitter.com/... @internetarchive : It's time to stand up for libraries! ✊The Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit will be heard in court on Monday. Will libraries be able to continue owning, lending and preserving books? Show your support here: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/ @fightfortheftr @neglectedbooks : The lawsuit against the Internet Archive is like suing for the right to cut down the Amazon rainforest because too many people are enjoying its shade and its carbon dioxide consumption for free. https://twitter.com/... T.J. Stiles / @tjstiles_author : This is not a battle for libraries. It is an attempt by the pet project of a tech millionaire to unilaterally copy books and publish and distribute unauthorized digital editions, paying no money to authors. Writing is hard. This effort makes it much harder. It's theft. https://twitter.com/... @internetarchive : Thank you to everyone who has supported the Internet Archive - and all libraries - during this lawsuit. The judge will hear oral argument on Monday. Make your voice heard: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/ @fightfortheftr #EmpoweringLibraries @freedomofpress : The @InternetArchive is a vital resource for journalists. It's the home to vast amounts of human knowledge and it's a shining symbol of freedom of information. Right now, it's under serious legal attack and needs everyone's support. Here's how to help: https://battleforlibraries.com/ See also Mediagazer
Inside Higher Ed
Context & Ripple Effects
The librarians’ intervention sits in a longer fight over whether digitized lending should preserve library practice or move toward a publisher-controlled access model. Earlier coverage described publishers’ effort to make library access resemble a “reading as a service” model.
The case was headed into oral arguments after debate over who legally owns and can lend ebooks. Its stakes became clearer when a federal judge later sided with the publishers, a result the Archive subsequently sought to overturn on appeal.
First-order effects
The dispute puts the Internet Archive’s Controlled Digital Lending model under direct legal scrutiny, forcing the nonprofit and supporting librarians to defend its treatment as a library service rather than ordinary copying.
Publishers gain a judicial route to challenge digital lending outside their licensing terms; the later district-court win for the publishers validated that route in this case.
Second-order effects
Libraries and digital-collection projects face greater pressure to rely on negotiated ebook licenses instead of digitizing and lending works under their own lending frameworks.
The Archive’s later account that it had to remove more than 500,000 books while appealing shows how litigation can reduce collection availability before the legal debate is fully resolved.
Third-order effects
If this approach is applied broadly, digital library access may be governed increasingly by rights-holder licensing and platform terms rather than by the lending practices libraries developed for physical collections.
The Archive’s later loss on appeal suggests the conflict is becoming a durable constraint on nonprofit digital preservation and lending, though its reach beyond this program will depend on future cases and policy.
The trend: This is part of the shift from ownership-based library lending toward licensed, rights-holder-controlled access to digital works.
It's time to stand up for libraries! ✊The Hachette v. Internet Archive lawsuit will be heard in court on Monday. Will libraries be able to continue owning, lending and preserving books? Show your support here: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/ @fightfortheftr
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Internet Archive - and all libraries - during this lawsuit. The judge will hear oral argument on Monday. Make your voice heard: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/ @fightfortheftr #EmpoweringLibraries
The lawsuit against the Internet Archive is like suing for the right to cut down the Amazon rainforest because too many people are enjoying its shade and its carbon dioxide consumption for free. https://twitter.com/...
This is not a battle for libraries. It is an attempt by the pet project of a tech millionaire to unilaterally copy books and publish and distribute unauthorized digital editions, paying no money to authors. Writing is hard. This effort makes it much harder. It's theft. https://tw…
The @InternetArchive is a vital resource for journalists. It's the home to vast amounts of human knowledge and it's a shining symbol of freedom of information. Right now, it's under serious legal attack and needs everyone's support. Here's how to help: https://battleforlibraries.…
The Internet Archive—like every library—is a best defense against the lies of LLMs and of anyone. The irony is that in fighting against the archive, publishers fight against their own value. Just Because ChatBots Can't Think Doesn't Mean They Can't Lie https://www.thenation.com/.…
AI spam can be checked against info in the Internet Archive, but publishers want it closed, so ebooks become like movies & music: Impermanent, not something we can own, only accessible under lease, like a movie on Netflix. If info access is privatized, books can be disappeared. h…
Maria Bustillos writes in The Nation about the Internet Archive lawsuit over digital book-lending, and also Tyler Cowen's AI-written post about Francis Bacon and the printing press and how AI could pollute search: https://www.thenation.com/...
🗣 Show your support by participating in today's oral arguments, plus a post-argument discussion hosted by @libraryfutures: https://blog.archive.org/... #EmpoweringLibraries
Today at 1 ET @InternetArchive will be fighting an existential legal battle for FOUR MILLION BOOKS that could be DELETED FOREVER. History's largest book burning, but no one's talking about it bc it's happening online. Take action and change that: https://battleforlibraries.com/
And yeah, sometimes people want to check the entirety of a book out before they purchase a copy. I do it ALL THE TIME. And many of the books in question are EXTREMELY hard to find in print. This is just putting up barriers to public knowledge, something we can scarcely afford rn.
This is so backwards. IRL libraries also offer you free copies of books on limited-loan basis. Just like @internetarchive. Book publishers act just as archaically as the MPAA/RIAA. Get with the program. The world has changed. People want digital copies of things. https://twitter.…
We're going to court TOMORROW to defend the digital rights of all libraries! @LibraryFutures will be hosting a live blog during oral argument and a live discussion afterwards. Here's how to participate: https://blog.archive.org/...
I can't believe it's possible for Chuck Wendig's legacy to go from “dude who wrote a bad Star Wars book” to “dude who made art and information less accessible for society” https://twitter.com/...
Here's how to participate in Monday's oral arguments - Internet Archives are defending public access to their digital libraries TOMORROW🫣 Came here to access free book on Iran contra - including the October surprise of Reagan Bush Casey Connally https://blog.archive.org/...
The outcome of this lawsuit could set a really bad precedent going forward, the Internet Archive is a necessity for the future, please support them! https://twitter.com/...
If the publishers win the lawsuit against our library, international scholars lose 🌍 Researchers worldwide rely on #controlleddigitallending for their work, particularly those who cannot access a physical library. Join in Monday: https://blog.archive.org/... #EmpoweringLibraries …
I'm proud to support @internetarchive. I've donated in the past, and will do so in the future. Their products are instrumental to my work as a journalist/reporter. They are, absolutely, a library. https://www.insidehighered.com/ ...
This is an *incredibly* important case because it will have direct ramifications on libraries being able to ‘rent’ out digital data — I.E. all those nintendo games that Big N is doing their damndest to destroy. https://twitter.com/...
#Librarians should stand with the Internet Archive - it's being sued by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons Inc., and Penguin Random House because they assert its not a real library. It is! https://www.insidehighered.com/ ...
Sign the petition if you care about preserving books digitally and providing access to people all over the world! 📚 Join authors like Neil Gaiman, lyricists like Peter Gabriel, librarians everywhere (🤓), and “feisty, queer women-led” organization Fight for the Future! https://twi…
🧵 So this is super important to anyone who likes to have #freebooks Please go read, then tweet, share on FB or IG, tag your fav #booknerd #bibliophile and #researchers this is important, they're trying to limit places like https://archive.org/ https://blog.archive.org/...
The Internet Archive preserves so much ephemera, and as someone researching pop music crazes of the 2000s, I have found so much information on there that I never would have been able to find in a conventional library. Please support #DigitalRightsForLibraries https://twitter.com/…
I can't stress enough how essential this is. Copyright laws in the digital age have failed authors, artists, creativity, and archiving. The Internet Archive needs to win to set a precedent. Support freedom of access to culture. https://twitter.com/...
Which public interested knowledge publishers are suing the Internet Archive in the USA for not being a library? Step forward into the headlights Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons Inc., & Penguin Random House - a lovely crew https://www.insidehighere…
guys, this ISN'T just about books... it's about ALL sorts of media, INCLUDING VIDEO GAMES!! If IA loses then we could be left with a BUNCH of easy ways to access not only console games, but also PC games and mobile games getting taken down! Do we REALLY want that? No? THEN SIGN I…
1. Idiot posts a ch*tgpt article with fake quotes from a book 2. The post with fake info shows up when you Google the book 3. With Internet Archive's Open Libary, you can check the real book for free and find the real info 4. Publishers are suing to kill IA tldr; we're fucked htt…
The future of digital culture must not be left in the hands of commercial interests, because corporations don't protect or develop culture: they sell it. Which is fine, and healthy, so long as businesses stay in their lane—but they don't. https://www.thenation.com/...
Search results being polluted with AI-generated hallucinations that people don't realize are fake isn't just a scary possibility. There's evidence it's already happening. https://www.thenation.com/...