Library Technology Guides

Internet Archive seeks summary judgment in federal lawsuit filed By publishing companies. The Internet Archive has asked a federal judge to rule in its favor and end a radical lawsuit, filed by four major publishing companies, that aims to criminalize library lending. The Internet Archive, headquartered in San Francisco, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit library which preserves and provides access to cultural artifacts of all kinds in electronic form. The motion for summary judgment, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Durie Tangri LLP, explains that the Archive's Controlled Digital Lending program is a lawful fair use that preserves traditional library lending in the digital world. The brief explains how the Internet Archive is advancing the purposes of copyright law by furthering public access to knowledge and facilitating the creation of new creative and scholarly works. The Internet Archive's digital lending hasn't cost the publishers one penny in revenues; in fact, concrete evidence shows that the Archive's digital lending does not and will not harm the market for books. [Full Announcement].

Publishers seek summary judgment against Internet Archive for blatant scanning and distribution of literary works on industrial scale. Member companies of the Association of American Publishers filed a motion for summary judgment in the copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive, first filed on June 1, 2020 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Following two years of litigation, the motion for summary judgement establishes a clear record showing that both the law and the facts of the case are undisputedly in the publishers' favor. The filings show that IA's illegal mass scanning, public display, and distribution of literary works are in direct contravention of the Copyright Act and in direct competition with lawfully licensed markets for both library and consumer eBooks. IA offers its unauthorized copies to the public at large through a global-facing enterprise coined “Open Library” and, previously, through a service dubbed the “National Emergency Library.” The defendant's activities are part of a larger commercial enterprise that not only provides access to books but also adds to its bottom line. Between 2011 and 2020, IA made approximately $30 million from libraries for scanning books in their collections. [Full Announcement].

UC Davis Library and California Digital Library launch project to explore expanded lending of digitized books. Digitized books have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for university libraries and scholars, the first 18 months of the pandemic threw their value into sharp relief. As campuses across the country closed, many libraries began offering expanded access to digital versions of the print books in their collections as an emergency measure, driving ebook use to new heights and unexpectedly launching a large-scale experiment in online scholarship. [Full Announcement].

NISO awarded Mellon Funding for controlled digital lending project. The National Information Standards Organizatio announced that it has received a grant of $125,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the development of a consensus framework for implementing controlled digital lending of book content by libraries, which has been approved by NISO members as a new initiative. [Full Announcement].

Boston Library Consortium to implement controlled digital lending for interlibrary loan. The Boston Library Consortium will implement controlled digital lending as a mechanism for interlibrary loan among its interested member libraries, under a new plan approved by its Board of Directors at their August 2021 meeting. In this resource sharing model, items that traditionally would be loaned physically could instead be digitized and lent digitally under controlled conditions. [Full Announcement].

Controlled Digital Lending to Play a Larger Role in Ex Libris Products. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, announced the development of new functions that will increase the compatibility of the company's library software solutions with controlled digital lending. Controlled digital lending is a practice that enables libraries to lend a digital copy of a physical resource in a “lend like print” manner—that is, in the same way in which they lend the physical resource itself. [Full Announcement].

National Library signs historic agreement with Internet Archive. Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library has reached an historic agreement with Internet Archive. All books left at the end of the Overseas Published Collections (OPC) review process will be donated to Internet Archive, so they can digitise and preserve them, ensuring future access for New Zealanders. [Full Announcement].

EBSCO Information Services to support resource sharing and development of controlled Ddgital lending in FOLIO. EBSCO Information Services is increasing its development commitment to Controlled Digital Lending and resource sharing on the FOLIO Library Services Platform. Collaborating with Knowledge Integration (K-Int), EBSCO will advance the development of these solutions for libraries worldwide. [Full Announcement].

Internet Archive responds to publishers lawsuit. Lawyers for the Internet Archive filed a brief in the US Southern District of New York responding to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House in June of this year. The Internet Archive denies all charges of willful infringement. [Full Announcement].

Project ReShare. Project ReShare and Stanford Libraries Launch Controlled Digital Lending Implementers Group. Project ReShare and Stanford Libraries of Stanford University announce the launch of the Controlled Digital Lending Implementers group to explore and coordinate broad and thoughtful implementation of controlled digital lending. [Full Announcement].

Statement on flawed theory of Controlled Digital Lending. The Association of American Publishers has reviewed the 2018 documents authored by David R. Hansen and Kyle K. Courtney on the subject of unauthorized library copying for the purpose of digital transmission of entire books to the public. These documents (collectively the “White Paper”) argue that libraries engaging in this activity do not infringe copyright in literary works because such copying and transmission falls within the fair use and first sale doctrines under the invented theory and White Paper definition of “controlled digital lending”. [Full Announcement].