Could the Internet Archive Go Out Like Napster?

Two and a half years ago, the Internet Archive made a decision that pissed off a lot of writers—and embroiled it in a lawsuit that many netizens fear could weaken the archive, its finances, and its services long into the future. More than two months after the National Emergency Library kicked off, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and John Wiley & Sons sued the Internet Archive, alleging “willful mass copyright infringement.” The publishers alleged that the archive had made 127 of their books available to the public without permission, thus infringing upon publishers’ intellectual property rights and eating into their profits during a moment of economic turbulence. “There’s a settled case that the Internet Archive can buy books and scan them,” said Stephen Witt, a tech reporter and author of an acclaimed book on the history of music piracy. While authors Slate spoke with have supported the Internet Archive, the Authors Guild released a statement in favor of the publishers in July; in a recent email, it referred to the Open Library as “morally bankrupt.” “We offered to work with Internet Archive in 2017 to create a licensing system that would make Open Library compliant with the copyright law, and that offer was rejected,” Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger wrote to Slate. “The Internet Archive is a resource and it could have been used as one by publishers.” He suggested the archive could further aid authors and their publishers by adding links on CDL books to the authors’ backlogs, or to similar books in a “if you liked this, try that!” fashion.