this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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[–] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 50 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

They removed the one copy rule temporarily, during the pandemic, it's now in place again. But the publishers have made any digitized lending illegal, not just more than one copy, any digitized lending. It is now illegal for them to scan and distribute even one single copy of any book.

It was never a problem with the single-copy restriction, and the publishers didn't bring up that restriction at all as the purpose of the suit, instead attacking the entirety of scanning & lending, even using Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) systems, like the Internet Archive, and other libraries use.

Even regardless of that, the First-sale Doctrine enables all existing secondary markets for copyrighted material. It's how you can lend a book to a friend, sell a used book after you're finished it, or swap copies of a video game on disk with somebody.

The Internet Archive is included in this. Changing the method of distribution (lending a digital copy vs a physical copy) has no functional distinction, and the publishers in the lawsuit were not able to demonstrate material harm, instead just stating that it wasn't "fair use," and should thus be illegal, regardless of the fact that they weren't harmed by the supposedly non-fair use.

And on top of that, fuck the law if it's unjust. I don't care if it's supposedly (even if not true) "100% not legal under current law" to do, it should be, and this ruling is unjust.