The Internet Archive just lost a major copyright case — and it could spell trouble for AI
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Closin’ the books… The Internet Archive — home to the Wayback Machine (and a vast library of digital artifacts) — lost a major copyright battle last week in a case involving its digital book library. A federal appeals court ruled in favor of publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley. The publishing industry said it was a big win, but Internet Archive supporters said it could signal trouble for libraries and open access to information.
Pandemic reads: In March 2020, the Internet Archive launched the National Emergency Library with 1.4M+ books. Unlike other libraries, which lend e-books to one reader at a time, the NEL temporarily let up to 10K people simultaneously borrow the same book file.
Epilogue: Publishers called the IA’s library “willful digital piracy” that could harm authors’ income. The IA’s lawyer said that the publishing industry — which saw a $3B surge in sales in 2021 — didn’t show that IA’s digital lending hurt the industry.
Coming up: The IA faces a lawsuit over its music library from labels including UMG and Sony. Those damages could add up to $400M, an amount that IA supporters fear could jeopardize the nonprofit’s existence.
From IA to AI… Copyright lawyers have been busy, and it’s not just because of e-libraries. Since last year, Pulitzer-winning authors have sued OpenAI and Microsoft — companies also sued by The New York Times. Record labels and artists have similarly sued genAI art and music companies Midjourney and Suno. Any major copyright ruling could set a precedent for the dozens of ongoing legal battles against AI companies. The Association of American Publishers, a trade group, said it hoped that would happen in the IA case.
Some threats are between the lines… While publishers feel optimistic about what IA’s loss could mean in other copyright battles, critics of the ruling see a stark difference between the nonprofit’s work and that of billion-dollar AI companies. IA supporters see last week’s court loss as a threat to libraries, which have been defunded in book-banning battles across the US.