Second Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms District Court Ruling in Hachette v. Internet Archive

Note: We will be updating this post with media coverage, statements, etc. over the coming hours and days. Please check back. 

From the Opinion (Page 2): 

Defendant-Appellant Internet Archive appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Koeltl, J.) denying its motion for summary judgment and granting   Plaintiffs-Appellees’ motion for summary judgment.

Internet Archive creates digital copies of print books and posts those copies on its website where users may access them in full, for free, in a service it calls the “Free Digital Library.” Other than a period in 2020, Internet Archive has maintained a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio for its digital books: Initially, it allowed only as many concurrent “checkouts” of a digital book as it has physical copies in its possession. Subsequently, Internet Archive expanded its Free Digital Library to include other libraries, thereby counting the number of physical copies of a book possessed by those libraries toward the total number of digital copies it makes available at any given time.

Plaintiffs-Appellees―four book publishers―sued Internet Archive in 2020, alleging that its Free Digital Library infringes their copyrights in 127 books and seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. Internet Archive asserted a defense of fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The district court rejected that defense and entered summary judgment for Plaintiffs.

This appeal presents the following question: Is it “fair use” for a nonprofit organization to scan copyright-protected print books in their entirety, and distribute those digital copies online, in full, for free, subject to a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio between its print copies and the digital copies it makes available at any given time, all without authorization from the copyright-holding publishers or authors? Applying the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act as well as binding Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent, we conclude the answer is no.

We therefore AFFIRM.

From the Conclusion of the Opinion (Page 63):

The parties in this case represent potentially serious interests. On the one hand, eBook licensing fees may impose a burden on libraries and reduce access to creative work. On the other hand, authors have a right to be compensated in connection with the copying and distribution of their original creations. Congress balanced these “competing claims upon the public interest” in the Copyright Act. Twentieth Century Music Corp., 422 U.S. at 156. We must uphold that balance here. IA asks this Court to bless the large scale copying and distribution of copyrighted books without permission from or payment to the Publishers or authors. Such a holding would allow for widescale copying that deprives creators of compensation and diminishes the incentive to produce new works. This may be what IA and its amici prefer, but it is not an approach that the Copyright Act permits.

For these reasons, we AFFIRM.

Direct to Full Text of Court Opinion
64 pages; PDF.

Direct to Complete Case Docket

See Also: Internet Archive Fights to Preserve Digital Libraries in Second Circuit Hearing (June 28, 2024)

Statements

• Appeals Court Affirms Decision Against Internet Archive for Copyright Infringement (via AAP)
• Internet Archive Responds to Appellate Opinion (via IA)

Statements & Op/Ed

• Authors Guild Applauds Final Court Decision Affirming Internet Archive’s Book Scanning as Copyright Infringement (via AG)
• Hachette v. Internet Archive Update: Second Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Against Internet Archive (via Authors Alliance)
• Op/Ed by CEO of Public Knowledge: Why a Ruling Against the Internet Archive Threatens the Future of America’s Libraries (via Technology Review)
• Hachette v. Internet Archive: We’re Still Fighting for Fair Use (via Library Futures)
• Statement + Photos on Ruling in Hachette v Internet Archive: This Can’t Stand (via Fight For the Future)
• Second Circuit Decision Limiting Book Lending Harms Libraries, Public (via Public Knowledge)

Media Reports

• Appeals Court Upholds Decision Against Internet Archive’s Book Scanning Program (via PW)

More Media Reports, Commentaries

• Appeals Court Upholds Ruling That Online Archive’s Book Sharing Violated Copyright Law (via AP)
• In a Big Blow to Internet Archive, Appeals Court Says Online Lending Library Is Not Fair Use (via Gizmodo)
• Internet Archive Court Loss Leaves Higher Ed in Gray Area (via Inside Higher Ed)
• Internet Archive Digital Lending Isn’t Fair Use, 2nd Cir. Says (Bloomberg Law)
• Internet Archive Loses Appeal Against Publishers on E-Library Lawsuit (via Courthouse News Service)
• Internet Archive Loses Appeal in Copyright Case Against Major Publishers (via VICE)
• Internet Archive Loses Court Appeal in Online Lending Library Fight (via NY Times)
• Major Book Publishers Defeat Internet Archive Appeal Over Digital Scanning (via Reuters)
• Second Circuit Says Libraries Disincentivize Authors to Write Books by Lending Them For Free (via TechDirt)
• The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (via WIRED)

Last Updated 8:45am EDST; September 11, 2024
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