How the Internet Archive plans to defend its digital lending practices as it appeals a US court's 2023 ruling; IA says it was forced to remove over 500K books
https://www.techdirt.com/... Kevin Carson / @KevinCarson1@kolektiva.social : Copyright Nazis strike again:Β βΒ If you found out that 500,000 books had been removed from your local public library, at the demands of big publishers who refused to let them buy and lend new copies, and were further suing the library for damages, wouldn't you think that would be a major news story? β¦ Diego / @diegopds@bolha.us : βOur position is straightforward; we just want to let our library patrons borrow and read the books we own, like any other library,β Freeland wrote, while arguing that the βpotential repercussions of this lawsuit extend far beyond the Internet Archiveβ and publishers should just βlet readers read.β β¦ Jack Yan / @jackyan@mastodon.social : I wonder if I should donate one of my earliest books, long out of print.Β WonΚΌt make up for losing 500,000 but a start?Β βΒ Only problem is I donΚΌt hold the rights internationally.Β βΒ https://arstechnica.com/... @Haste@mastodon.social : In response to their continued dismantling of valuable digital libraries, I officially refuse to buy any more books from members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP).Β βΒ Yes, I'm aware this includes huge publishers like Penguin and Macmillan. β¦ X: @geeknik : Publishers' lawsuit forces Internet Archive to remove 500,000 books, sparking a battle over digital lending rights and access to knowledge. IA appeals for fair use recognition under copyright law. https://arstechnica.com/... Erica Holan Lucci, PhD / @ericaeducator : IA fans βargued that takedowns dealt βa serious blow to lower-income families, people w/disabilities, rural communities, LGBTQ+ people, among others,β who may not have access to a local library or feel βsafe accessing the information they need in public.β https://arstechnica.com/... @gvnzng : βThis isn't happening in the abstract,β Freeland told Ars. βThis is real. People no longer have access to a half a million books.β https://arstechnica.com/... @internetarchive : Hey, @HachetteUS, @HarperCollins, @penguinrandom & @WileyGlobal, did you think about people like Jason & his daughter when you told us to remove 500,000 books from our lending library? Tell the publishers: restore access to these books ποΈ https://www.change.org/... #LetReadersRead [image] @internetarchive : π¨ The removal of 500,000+ books from our library is affecting vital educational programs. Thousands of students no longer have access to crucial books & stories. Sign our open letter asking the publishers to restore these books! πβοΈ https://change.org/... #LetReadersRead [image] @tlalexander : On the removal of 500,000 books from the internet archive due to publisher lawsuits. [image] Kevin Kelly / @kevin2kelly : The Author's Guild β who should love libraries and readers β should also side with the Internet Archive Library Lending program to support their readers. @authorsguild https://www.techdirt.com/... Michael Vokabre / @vokabre : @internetarchive ... It's of note that me being away from an English speaking country means that Internet Archive is the only way to get hold of stuff that libraries simply won't have. This is especially important in unfree societies, as e.g. the library of Ukrainian books in Moscow got destroyed. Forums: Hacker News : Internet Archive forced to remove 500k books after publishers' court win r/TheDeprogram : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/Annas_Archive : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/LateStageCapitalism : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/redscarepod : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers court win r/france : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/AlternativeHistory : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/Millennials : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/LibertarianUncensored : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/DataHoarder : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/books : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/JordanPeterson : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/technews : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win r/technology : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win Ars OpenForum : Internet Archive forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
The appeal follows a 2023 ruling for four publishers over the Internet Archive's controlled digital lending system. Library advocates had already framed the case as a test of whether the Archive should be treated as a library while building digital collections, as reflected in librarians' defense of that role.
The reported removal of more than 500,000 titles makes the dispute concrete: it is no longer solely about a copyright doctrine, but about the size and availability of a digital lending collection for the communities the Archive says it serves.
First-order effects
- The Internet Archive's lending catalog is immediately smaller after removing more than 500,000 books, reducing the titles available to its patrons.
- The Archive must make its fair-use case on appeal while publishers retain the benefit of the district court ruling.
Second-order effects
- The case reinforces publishers' leverage over how library-style digital access is delivered, pushing collections toward terms set through licensing rather than the Archive's ownership-based lending model.
- Libraries and digital-collection advocates gain a sharper example for their argument that copyright outcomes can constrain access for remote, disabled, and lower-income readers.
Third-order effects
- If courts continue to reject this controlled digital lending model, the boundary between owning a physical copy and offering a digital loan will become more consequential for nonprofit digital libraries.
- The dispute is part of a longer shift toward digital library access being governed by rights-holder-approved distribution arrangements; the eventual legal standard will determine how broadly that shift applies.
The trend: Digital library migration is turning copyright disputes over scanned collections into a broader contest over whether digital lending resembles traditional library ownership or licensed access.