As the Authors Guild voices its opposition to Internet Archive's National Emergency Library, a look at the legal issues related to digital book lending
publishers, authors, translators, booksellers—at a time when this could be mistaken for charity. https://twitter.com/... Maria DahvanaHeadley / @mariadahvana : Two of my books are in here, permission free, definitely not public domain, as they were published in 2006 & 2010 respectively, and hi, I'm still alive. Yes, it's an emergency. Also I own copyright to those books. FFS. 😖 https://twitter.com/... Jim C. Hines / @jimchines : LIBRARIES. HAVE. EBOOKS. FOR. CHECKOUT. Better yet, libraries have LEGALLY-ACQUIRED ebooks available for checkout. Come on, @NPR. Do better. https://www.authorsguild.org/ ... https://twitter.com/... @authorsguild : IA's National Emergency Library has misrepresented the nature and legality of the project through a deceptive publicity campaign. https://www.authorsguild.org/ ...
Ars TechnicaTimothy B. Lee
Context & Ripple Effects
The Internet Archive'sNational Emergency Library suspends waitlists and lends scanned in-copyright books permission-free during pandemic closures, and the Authors Guild — joined by authors like Maria Dahvana Headley, whose still-copyrighted books appear in the collection and Jim C. Hines — is calling it infringement dressed as charity. The objection matters because it supplies the author-side record that publishers later leaned on: the dispute over who legally owns ebook lending rights became the four-publisher lawsuit that a federal judge decided in the publishers' favor in 2023.
Hines's counterpoint — that libraries already license legally-acquired ebooks — frames the real fault line: the Archive's model competes with a licensed ebook market where libraries pay an average of $40 per copy under publisher restrictions, even as pandemic checkouts surged 52% year over year. The Guild's opposition is the moment the emergency framing stops shielding the project legally.
First-order effects
Authors with books in the collection — Headley among them — lose exclusive control of permission-free lending of works still under copyright, right now, without consent or payment.
The Internet Archive faces a unified front of authors, publishers, translators, and booksellers attacking the 'emergency' framing that justified the library's launch.
Second-order effects
The publishers' infringement suit over Controlled Digital Lending follows directly from this dispute, ending in a 2023 ruling for the four publishers that forces the Archive to remove over 500K books from lending.
Libraries and publishers gain leverage in ebook licensing negotiations, since the court effectively rules out CDL as a free alternative to the ~$40-per-copy licensed model.
Third-order effects
If the appeals fail — as the Archive's 2024 loss confirms — digital lending structurally splits into licensed, publisher-controlled ebook markets and a nonprofit archive confined to physical loans, with copyright law defining ownership of ebooks rather than libraries.
The case sets the precedent that emergency circumstances do not create a fair-use carve-out for mass digitized lending, narrowing what any future 'emergency library' can legally do.
The trend: Court rulings are consolidating ebook lending under publisher licensing, pushing nonprofit digitized-lending projects like the Internet Archive's toward a narrower, appeal-driven defense of Controlled Digital Lending.
Can I echo other folks disdain for @internetarchive offering their database of books for free #NationalEmergencyLibrary with no consent from authors & publishers. This is piracy with a cloak of respectability, still piracy. https://twitter.com/...
The framing of this as some kind of heroic act is ridiculous. We already have actual public libraries with huge ebook collections and online resources who are providing legitimate access to patrons WHILE supporting authors and publishers. https://twitter.com/...
@AubreyGilleran @eatinginmycar so is the New Yorker also with a copyright lawyer in the article saying the IA is most likely well within copyright law here. https://www.newyorker.com/...
When we opened up the 1.4 M books in the #NationalEmergencyLibrary, @NewYorker writer @Harvard historian Jill Lepore went blissfully browsing. What an interesting path! Please read: https://www.newyorker.com/...
Dear @internetarchive I have just sent a couple of dozen DMCA take down requests of our pirated books. You are not a library. If readers want more books published, authors need paid. Thanks for wasting everyone's time. cc @NewYorker @nprbooks @PamelaPaulNYT @PublishersWkly https:…
@tonysopranostan @NotLikeFreddy Go to your local library (or their website), which orders and pays for books from the publishing houses, who in turn compensate their many employees for their labor. The Internet Archive does not function that way. https://www.authorsguild.org/ ...
Authors need money too. We have bills. We have people to feed. Don't hit us when we're down. Shame on the #internetArchive to use the #Covid_19 pandemic as an excuse to abuse copyright. - https://www.authorsguild.org/ ...
Wow. So art can be considered so necessary in times like these that sites like the Internet Archive can steal it and disseminate it without repercussion because it's an “emergency”, but creators get nothing in the stimulus and are now literally being robbed cool cool cool https:/…
This is also known as criminal copyright infringement. There is no “emergency fair use” argument that excuses these blatantly criminal acts. Libraries do NOT have emergency “copyright superpowers.” https://twitter.com/...
22/x. Dear @FBISanFrancisco. The @internetarchive has announced they will unilaterally begin giving away authors books. Get this: In the name of the national emergency. This is a conspiracy to commit mass copyright infringement.InvestigateRICO... https://arstechnica.com/...
It seems the Internet Archive's “National Emergency Library” has no rights to the books it is giving away and is potentially harming the authors who wrote those books. https://twitter.com/...
The National Emergency Library is giving away copyrighted works that are not theirs to give, chipping away at the incomes & revenue of people who work in the publishing ecosystem—publishers, authors, translators, booksellers—at a time when this could be mistaken for charity. http…
Two of my books are in here, permission free, definitely not public domain, as they were published in 2006 & 2010 respectively, and hi, I'm still alive. Yes, it's an emergency. Also I own copyright to those books. FFS. 😖 https://twitter.com/...
LIBRARIES. HAVE. EBOOKS. FOR. CHECKOUT. Better yet, libraries have LEGALLY-ACQUIRED ebooks available for checkout. Come on, @NPR. Do better. https://www.authorsguild.org/ ... https://twitter.com/...
IA's National Emergency Library has misrepresented the nature and legality of the project through a deceptive publicity campaign. https://www.authorsguild.org/ ...