The Internet Archive lost an appeal over ebook lending
The New Eleven-Lending System: The Case for Fair Use in the Library Sector of e-Collective Librarianship and Digital Lending
On the one hand, eBook licensing fees may impose a burden on libraries and reduce access to creative work. Authors have the right to be paid for copying and distribution of their work. The Copyright Act is balanced by these malpractice claims. We must uphold that balance here.
The NEL was an offshoot of an ongoing digital lending project called the Open Library, in which the Internet Archive scans physical copies of library books and lets people check out the digital copies as though they’re regular reading material instead of ebooks. The Open Library lent the books to one person at a time—but the NEL removed this ratio rule, instead letting large numbers of people borrow each scanned book at once.
The verdict is not terribly surprising, due to how courts have interpreted fair use recently, said James Grimmelmann, a professor at Cornell University.
