Recently, the Internet Archive (IA) was found guilty of copyright infringement related to its Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) service. The CDL service provides free access to a digital library of books. In the case, US District Judge John Koeltl stated that the IA infringed the copyright of four publishers.
Now, the IA seems to have reached an agreement with these publishers, including Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House. The IA will have to pay an unspecified amount of money to the publishers if the appeal is unsuccessful.
The publishers are “extremely pleased” with this, as it extends the copyright controversy to books still in their catalogs.
Publishers sued the IA in 2020 after the organization started lending free digital copies of books during the pandemic. According to the judge, the free ebooks that IA was distributing were being licensed to traditional libraries. If the consent judgment is accepted, the IA will be able to overturn Koeltl’s unfavorable decision.
According to the publishers, the CDL service is a mass copyright infringement operation. But the IA believes that libraries should be able to “own, lend, and preserver digital books” without the limitation of copyrighting.
The IA believes that the judge will be able to correct factual and procedural errors that they think were made and fight back against publishers.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.