Hachette v. Internet Archive

Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive
CourtUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Full case name Hachette Book Group Inc., et al. v. Internet Archive, et al.
Court membership
Judge sittingJohn G. Koeltl

Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 20-cv-4160 (JGK), 664 F.Supp.3d 370 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), WL 2623787 (S.D.N.Y. 2023), is a case in which the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the Internet Archive, a registered library, committed copyright infringement by scanning and lending complete copies of books through controlled digital lending mechanisms. Stemming from the creation of the National Emergency Library (NEL) during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, publishing companies Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Wiley alleged that the Internet Archive's Open Library and National Emergency Library facilitated copyright infringement. The case primarily concerns the fair use of controlled digital lending (CDL) of complete copies of certain books. The case does not concern the display of short passages, limited page views, search results, books out of copyright or out of print, or books without an ebook version currently for sale.[1]

On March 25, 2023, the court ruled on the case.[2] In August 2023, the parties reached a negotiated judgment, including a permanent injunction barring the Internet Archive from lending complete copies through CDL of some of the plaintiffs' books.[3] The Internet Archive appealed the decision but it was upheld by the appellate court in September 2024.

In December 2020, Publishers Weekly included the lawsuit among its "Top 10 Library Stories of 2020".[4]

  1. ^ Peters, Jay; Hollister, Sean (March 24, 2023). "The Internet Archive has lost its first fight to scan and lend e-books like a library". The Verge. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference CommonDreams was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Rose 2023 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Albanese, Andrew (December 11, 2020). "The top 10 library stories of 2020". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.