The Internet Archive is running out of legal options. reports that the nonprofit Internet catalog of videos, games, and books has lost an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In an ongoing lawsuit against several high-profile book publishers, the court rejected Archive.org’s claim that its virtual book library could legally operate under the fair use doctrine.
The claim stems from the National Emergency Library (NEL), an online archive launched in March 2020. NEL has helped readers access library materials during the COVID pandemic with digital copies of books that users can check out one by one. After some time, the Internet Archive allowed users to check out an unlimited number of e-books and authors such as Colson Whitehead and Neil Gaiman, and the Authors Guild condemned NEL. .
The website reinstated book-taking caps, but that didn’t stop publishers like Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Random House from filing a lawsuit the following June. Less than three years later, ruled in favor of plaintiffs who declared that a non-commercial website violated publishers’ copyright protections.
The only positive aspect of Archive.org’s appeal is the court’s recognition of the Internet Archive as a non-profit entity. The Internet Archive is still facing On the music digitization projects brought last year by Universal Music Group and Sony.
