The Internet Archive has lost the appeal for its landmark copyright case, agreeing to pay an undisclosed amount to publishers

Old books arranged so that no text, author's name or publisher is visible. Day light. Retouched photograph. Paris, France. — (Image credit: Getty / Colors Hunter)

In March 2023, the landmark case Hachette Book Group Inc. v. Internet Archive ruled in Hachett's favour. Now, over a year into an appeals process, the Internet Archive's appeal has been shut down.

This all stems from a decision made at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As lockdowns started to happen, and the public was no longer able to go to libraries—thereby giving them less access to books—the Internet Archive opened up its library to the public, where users could "lend" books (via Wired).

The National Emergency Library, as this scheme was called, operated from March 24 to June 2020, providing a "temporary collection of books that supported emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual stimulation".

Many publishers and authors argued this was "tantamount to piracy", and the Internet Archive has made an agreement to pay an undisclosed amount to the publishers whose books were replicated during the months. This decision has been met with ire (as the replies to this post show), as providing educational tools for free can stop the often prohibitively expensive barriers of getting your own.

Though the decision does seem to be the correct one, in a legal sense, it's hard not to lament the further sheltering of texts that could serve to help many with their education. Fundamentally, books used to educate people serve a different purpose to those used to entertain primarily, yet that distinction is always that important in a legal context.

Hopefully, the broader societal pushback around this case will push publishers into being a bit more "generous" with the works currently being hoarded.

James is a more recent PC gaming convert, often admiring graphics cards, cases, and motherboards from afar. It was not until 2019, after just finishing a degree in law and media, that they decided to throw out the last few years of education, build their PC, and start writing about gaming instead. In that time, he has covered the latest doodads, contraptions, and gismos, and loved every second of it. Hey, it’s better than writing case briefs.