this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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[–] muhyb 35 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If they can get away with this instead of total closure, I see this as a save. A weighty one.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

The IA is appealing the decision so they're not out of the woods just yet.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Is there a Pirate Bay for books?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is depressing as hell and a statement about the time we live in and the corporate overlords who control our lives.

Jimmy McGee made a great video about it last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJoGm8c523M

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

... not really though.

The one big law about lending out digital copies of books you own is that you only lend out as many as you physically own. They uncapped that restriction, openly, and they admitted to it.

This is an incredibly open and shut case.

It's stupid as hell, and that law needs to die, but there was no corporations doing people dirty here. This could have ended so, so much worse for IA.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

The one big law about lending out digital copies of books you own is that you only lend out as many as you physically own.

That is not what the lawsuit is about, and that was not what the plaintiffs or the judge argued. Their argument is that if you can not take a physical copy and digitize it.

If you want a digital copy to lend, you must beg the publisher to allow you to have a digital copy to lend and you must accept their terms. If they don't want to provide you with a digital lending option as a library, then you can not lend it. If they want to make you use their DRM software you must use it even if it spies on your patrons and charges you per-lending fees, or even "expires" the book after so many loans, or "blacks out" or "embargoes" lending of titles you are supposed to have in your catalog (these are all features of publisher-backed digital lending schemes).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Do not forget the library of Alexandria.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


To restore access, IA is now appealing, hoping to reverse the prior court's decision by convincing the US Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit that IA's controlled digital lending of its physical books should be considered fair use under copyright law.

An April court filing shows that IA intends to argue that the publishers have no evidence that the e-book market has been harmed by the open library's lending, and copyright law is better served by allowing IA's lending than by preventing it.

"This is a fight for the preservation of all libraries and the fundamental right to access information, a cornerstone of any democratic society," Freeland wrote.

"We believe in the right of authors to benefit from their work; and we believe that libraries must be permitted to fulfill their mission of providing access to knowledge, regardless of whether it takes physical or digital form.

Among the "far-reaching implications" of the takedowns, IA fans counted the negative educational impact of academics, students, and educators—"particularly in underserved communities where access is limited—who were suddenly cut off from "research materials and literature that support their learning and academic growth."

"Your removal of these books impedes academic progress and innovation, as well as imperiling the preservation of our cultural and historical knowledge," the letter said.


The original article contains 637 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Sign the petition! Not sure if it is going to make any difference, but it just takes a couple of minutes. https://www.change.org/p/let-readers-read-an-open-letter-to-the-publishers-in-hachette-v-internet-archive