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Why a ruling against the Internet Archive threatens the future of America’s libraries

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/11/1103838/why-a-ruling-against-the-internet-archive-threatens-the-future-of-americas-libraries/

The decision locks libraries into an ecosystem that is not in readers' interests. Congress must act.

1 comments

reddig33

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False equivalence. While the ebook licensing monopoly is awful, that’s not what this case was about.

Internet Archive loaned out potentially infinite copies of books it had neither licensed nor owned multiple physical copies of. This would be like if your local public library made Xerox copies of a single book and handed them out to any patron who wanted a copy.

If IA had simply bothered to purchase a physical copy (even used!) for every copy they loaned out, they would have had a much stronger case.