On March 22, the News/Media Alliance joined an amicus brief in support of Hachette in Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, concerning Internet Archive’s digitizing of copyright protected books and the making those books available to the public for free without authorization. The district court found in favor of the book publishers and the case is currently on appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The amicus brief emphasizes the purpose of copyright as an incentive for creative effort and notes that owning “one copy of a copyrighted work does not entitle the owner of that copy to make and distribute additional copies.” While Internet Archive claims that its digitization project is making it easier for libraries to lend books to their patrons, book publishers already license their works to the libraries. The brief goes on to argue that digitizing physical media and lending it online is not fair use, Internet Archive’s use is not “transformative,” such use negatively affects the existing licensing market, and that adopting Internet Archive’s theory of fair use would have devastating consequences for the music, movie, and publishing industries. The other organizations in the brief included the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), and the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Read the full brief here.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
