#hachette v internet archive

[macmanx]

Big Media’s lobbyists have been running a smear campaign trying to paint the Internet Archive as a greedy big tech operation bent on stealing books—which is totally absurd. If you’ve ever used the WayBack Machine, listened to their wonderful archives of live music, or checked out one of their 37 million texts, it’s time to speak up. On March 20, everyone is showing their support for the Internet Archive during oral arguments.

Here's how you can help:

The Internet Archive is our library, a massive collection of knowledge and culture accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Don't let greedy publishers burn down the next Library of Alexandria!

And if you're absolutely certain you don't use or need the Internet Archive, take a look at their projects first, you might be surprised. Those are all at risk too.

[gynoidgearhead]

re: Internet Archive court case

So I feel the need to tell my followers about something important, but the post currently circulating about it has a ton of "how dare you", and I hate with the fury of a thousand suns the idea of passing shame on to my followers for falling for something I myself fell for.

(Using Tumblr should not feel unsafe. I don’t want this turning into Twitter.)

Here's my summary of the salient points:

The Internet Archive apparently committed actions that made them not equivalent to a legitimate library, including with regard to books. They were doing the digital equivalent of photocopying books and setting the copies on the shelves. In the most sophisticated iterations of this scheme, they were (figuratively) photocopying other libraries' books, passing them off as the originals, and lending them out.

The Internet Archive did library crimes, and that opened them up to being sued.

This might come as a shock to you if you, like me, hadn't tried borrowing a book from them since before they (apparently) stopped tracking copies altogether and got told "hey, all of the copies are lent out" and you went "oh, okay, that makes sense because library".

The way digital lending is currently handled is apparently pretty broken, such that even the legitimate-sounding version of this scheme (1 physical copy = 1 patron lending a digital copy) might not be viable (???); but that’s an entirely separate consideration from whether or not IA should be allowed to maintain the scheme that more obviously violates copyright.

You can take issue with the way the major publishers operate (in fact, please do), but book piracy hurts authors first and foremost. If books don't sell, authors don't get paid at all (i.e. maybe can't even pay for food) and definitely don't get paid to write sequels.

(Though I'm not really sure this logic should apply to books that are entirely out of circulation? Like, if a book is out of print, the publishing industry itself has decided that an author already cannot make any more money off of that book. It's not like they track every time a used copy of the book is bought and sold. This is another place where I felt bad about the idea of reblogging the original post uncritically.)

Personally, I wish the Internet Archive would focus most on the one truly unique and irreplaceable aspect of their institution -- the Wayback Machine. If that goes under, there isn't another like it waiting in the wings, and very likely the only copy of immeasurable amounts of information is lost forever.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

For those who follow me for film or music content (which is like 90% of what I post lol), there are a lot of classic films and historical resources I have only been able to access on Internet Archive. I’m not sure what Hachette v. Internet Archive means for the future of the website and the countless accessible sources there, but as Internet Archive has lost the case and is going to appeal, I highly recommend making a donation to their website at http://archive.org if you can. Show your support for public accessible knowledge today!

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Starting my Star Wars Holocron Drive over again, after the kittens killed my HDD. I foresee a lot of YouTube screen capping and torrenting off of The Internet Archive in my future. Probably going to skip finding every little fan film this time and focus on the big hits and some of my favorite deep cuts. Its nice to see pretty much everything is still available and has seeds. A lot more of the old TV Spots like The Making of Star Wars (ABC 1977) got uploaded to Archive.org in the last few years. With Archives current legal troubles* I'm d/ling them as fast as I can. ORAL ARGUMENTS FOR Hachette v Internet Archive ARE BEING HELD THIS MONDAY (March 20), IN THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK! Heres a link to Archive.org on how to help and another to Battle for Libraries an internet advocacy group involved in the fight.

[burningvelvet]

if the significance of the internet archive being threatened has been lost on anyone, maybe these quick comparisons will put it into perspective…

Banning the Internet Archive would be the equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria hundreds of times…

[Image Descriptions in alt text]

[sealpup9]

Internet Archive Live Hearing happens tomorrow: March 20, 2023

Here's a link to the Internet Archive's page, describing how you can participate and listen to oral arguments on Monday March 20th at 1pm ET

You may know the Internet Archive because of the Wayback Machine!!

The court case Hachette v Internet Archive is being brought to court and threatens to tear down the Internet Archive as we know it.

"The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library, preserving and providing access to cultural artifacts of all kinds in electronic form. CDL allows people to check out digital copies of books for two weeks or less, and only permits patrons to check out as many copies as the Archive and its partner libraries physically own. That means that if the Archive and its partner libraries have only one copy of a book, then only one patron can borrow it at a time, just like any other library. Through CDL, the Internet Archive is helping to foster research and learning by helping its patrons access books and by keeping books in circulation when their publishers have lost interest in them."

This is so important because not only does the Internet Archive provide books that are long out of circulation and copies for people to borrow, they are also used as sources for things like Wikipedia articles! Imagine if suddenly, no one could access sources that someone cites for their information! Having access to information digitally today is a very important thing, and with all of the paywalls people face nowadays for news, imagine if you suddenly had to pay for access to any books. Websites like Amazon already are attempting to replace any sort of ebook rentals with paid services, when we have the right to borrow books online just as we do physically. The Internet Archive is extremely important and one of our rights- access to information- is actively being fought against.

REMEMBER: This will not JUST affect the internet archive. This could change how libraries in general work, and could threaten public access to information. Imagine how many youtube video essay sources would be null and void, imagine just trying to research an obscure topic at 3am-- If all of that was behind a paywall, only those with money would be able to access them! The harder it is for libraries to share books and archive information, the more the public suffers!

Please show your support! Read more about the case here: https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive

https://www.battleforlibraries.com/

I'm not sure how quick Tumblr will work on approving this blazed post but if the day/time has passed, please know that you can actively look into more information on this case and other info on the Internet Archive Blogs. You can also add your name to a list of supporters of Battle for Libraries Here.

Let's work together on making sure we have access to information! In this digital age, we deserve to access just as much online as we do offline!

[protoslacker]

Don’t let libraries die. As the future goes digital, major publishers are suing to cut off libraries’ defense of digital books from censorship. It’s time to fight back.

[chaoskirin]

Watching the internet go after "major publishing houses" because they won the case against the Internet Archive is so upsetting.

I don't think people realize this, but they don't pay their authors enough to survive. Even if you're published through one of the big four, you're generally not going to earn enough to live, unless you're pumping out 6-10 books a year.

There seems to be this pervading belief that authors published with major publishers earn a LOT OF MONEY, IE that an advance might be in the range of six figures. Which leads people to the conclusion that piracy hurts no one.

In reality, your advance on a book might be in the range of $6K if you're a new author, and doesn't really go past the $20K range for established authors, unless you're really famous. They HAVE the money to pay authors. They just... don't.

I know $20K seems like a lot, but an adult living on their own needs a whole lot more to live, especially because authors in the US need to purchase health insurance. They don't get it through work.

In 2023, the living wage for a family is, at the very minimum, $80,000.

So what happens when you boycott Penguin, or Harper Collins? They aren't going to give their CEOs less. They're going to give their authors less. Because to them, authors are disposable. There are always more people willing to sell their books, until they realize they can't make a living wage off being an author. Then they stop writing.

And the CEOs keep getting yearly raises.

I really, REALLY wish I could get through to people on this. Every time I try, I'm usually slammed with one of two arguments: 1. Piracy hurts no one. Or 2. I ought to get an actual job and stop treating a hobby like a job.

Which just baffles me, because y'all are out here consuming books, but you're literally despising the authors for trying to write full time and survive. It sucks. And it's gotten progressively worse. Not even 5 years ago, the prevailing opinion was that you Do Not Pirate Books.

Honestly, it's hard to care anymore with wave after wave of instructions on how to pirate books. It's barely worth the effort to write anymore, and the desire to put the work into creating a story, editing, and then searching for a publisher just isn't there.

And that's how a lot of queer and marginalized authors feel. By pirating books, you're losing the voices you want to read, while elevating the voices who are doing real harm.

I just think you all should know that and accept that before pirating. If you're okay with that, then I guess go ahead and do it. You'll definitely be satisfied in the short term, but just understand that queer voices are FINALLY getting their stories heard. Pirating is just going to erase all that progress.

That being said, if I ever earn out 6 figures, pirate my books with my blessing. But right now, here's a picture of my March royalties:

So please, don't pirate my books.

Also, despite what the comments say, this is NOT a slippery slope toward destroying fanworks archives. The Internet Archive was literally pirating books (not purchasing them, like libraries do) then scanning them and putting them up on the internet to borrow. If the IA purchased books from authors to scan, it would be considered a library, and authors would be happy.

Fanworks like fanfiction fall under derivative work, or parody. It's a totally different ballpark.

So many organizations reached out to the Internet Archive in an attempt to come to a license agreement, and the IA did not respond.

I really hope people consider reblogging this post. My source is that I'm an author, and have been following this case very closely.

[celtiberian-idiot]

The internet archive under attack

I've come a bit late to the party but recently it found out that 'hachette book group, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House' all book publishing firms? (Is firm the adequate term, I'm not sure) are trying to sue the internet archive as in their eyes the internet archive is costing them millions of dollars.

I cannot express with word the rage in my insides at the moment. This is... something. Something I hate with all my being. The internet archive holds so much knowledge sometimes I make fun at myself for being a bit of a data hoarder, I don't like to delete files, I like to preserve iterations of the things I've made or I own. The internet archive holds so much, hounded of thousand of pdfs, from classics to less known, audiobooks, old films, music, tv programming, etc... I've seen old games archived but also people uploading their own custom games, their psp homebrew games, original games that aren't found anywhere else.

The internet archive also hosts the wayback machine, a way to record old webpages and their change through time. Do you want to see how the old internet was in a more direct medium than screenshots? This is the way to do it. And you don't even need to be interested in the early internet to make use of it, recently there was a post making fun of an AI made article that repeated the word "pebble" like 30 times. I was late to the party and the article was edited, however someone archived that page, someone was able to save that instance in time and allowed everyone to revisit it whenever they liked.

I'm not very good at putting things into words, specially in the heat of the moment like right know when I've just learnt about the issue. But this is serious this is one step away from suing public libraries. I hate it here. I want to burn something. The internet archive is important and there should be more initiatives like it. The archival of the internet should not be at risk so easily...

This people have put in better word than I can at the moment.

[tehriz]

I’ve seen a lot of misinformation going around here about this lawsuit and would strongly encourage folks to read up on what was actually being done and what the actual objections of publishers and authors were. This is a good writeup with a few different perspectives on the ruling last week.

(I am a huge supporter of a lot of the Internet Archive’s work and like a few of the folks here am just flabbergasted this was the hill they chose to die on and jeopardize everything else they do. I also would encourage folks to understand that authors, many of whom cannot afford to write full time and are being paid on increasingly small and fragmented advances, directly lose income and often future contracts when their books are not bought or licensed normally, and don’t deserve to be treated like they’re corporate shills or anti-literacy or personally murdering digital archiving because they are opposed to this thing the IA did.)

[monkey-network]

I'm forever siding with Internet Archive but I know this is not the same spat as Viacom v Youtube because while I'm no copyright expert, archive sites won't exactly pass the transformative angle & it's harder justifying the non-profit angle with pre-established literature than fan works. Just saying I don't use Internet Archive for ebooks so this is not exactly my field of expertise, but fuck the publishers responsible for this anyways.

[macmanx]

The injunction clarifies that the Publisher Plaintiffs will notify us of their commercially available books, and the Internet Archive will expeditiously remove them from lending. Additionally, Judge Koeltl also signed an order in favor of the Internet Archive, agreeing with our request that the injunction should only cover books available in electronic format, and not the publishers’ full catalog of books in print.

Broadly, this injunction will result in a significant loss of access to valuable knowledge for the public. It means that people who are not part of an elite institution or who do not live near a well-funded public library will lose access to books they cannot read otherwise.

The Internet Archive may still digitize books for preservation purposes, and may still provide access to our digital collections in a number of ways, including through interlibrary loan and by making accessible formats available to people with qualified print disabilities. We may continue to display “short portions” of books as is consistent with fair use—for example, Wikipedia references. The injunction does not affect lending of out-of-print books. And of course, the Internet Archive will still make millions of public domain texts available to the public without restriction.

I can’t say that I’m surprised, but this still sucks. I don’t have adequate words at the moment, so I’ll just quote this again: “this injunction will result in a significant loss of access to valuable knowledge for the public. It means that people who are not part of an elite institution or who do not live near a well-funded public library will lose access to books they cannot read otherwise.”

All because publishers (who already keep the majority of a book’s profits, up to 95%) want more ways to line their pockets.

And, before it inevitably comes up, over 1,000 authors (many you’ve probably heard of) opposed this lawsuit.

[wastelandslug]

hey so incase you havent heard

Internet Archive is getting banned

[sixty-silver-wishes]

doing my best to follow the internet archive v hachette liveblog and . very nervous rn it’s not looking good

joining the post-liveblog zoom meeting but . man I’m so scared rn

[burningvelvet]

i’m so fucking sick of people (say, the people currently winning the lawsuit) claiming that the internet archive infringes their precious darling copyrights—if they want individual books taken down, why should the trial not only be about those?—why must they punish the entire catalogue? i use the archive primarily for old historical books, academic books, many books that are niche or 100+ years old which no one can buy anywhere, nearly no one would buy even if they could, and which the vast majority of real libraries do not even carry. i use the internet archive practically every single day for research and studying and it is my #1 resource by far. why do people value profits over knowledge? why do people value profits over accessibility? this is a library and the publishing companies are mad because it allows people to read their works for free. IT’S A FUCKING LIBRARY! poor people deserve to read and access archives. poor people make up the majority of the human race. all this trial is accomplishing is making thousands of great books inaccessible to poor people because publishing companies want to save a few bucks. sure, you can borrow books from other libraries via interlibrary loaning, but doing so takes WEEKS due to shipping. the internet archive saves people an enormous amount of time and money. this is a major case of book burning being put into action and practically no one outside of academia gives a fuck or even knows about this issue because journalists know this story won’t sell well and thus aren’t bringing attention to it. i am disgusted and my hope for humanity is in the gutter.

[hapalopus]

Btw if you're pissed about the Hachette Book Group suing the Internet Archive, you can tell them how you feel. The least we can do is tell em we don't like what they're doing and that we'll take our business elsewhere (🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️) if they actually manage to burn down the library:

HachetteUS / HarperCollins / HarperCollinsUK / penguinrandom / PenguinBooks / WileyGlobal / randomhouse / penguinusa / PenguinUKBooks / PenguinRandomCA / PenguinClassics / PenguinTeen / harperteen / harperbooks / HarperFiction / HarperPerennial / HarperCollinsCh / HarperChildrens / HarperAudio / Harper360 / Wiley_Chemistry / WileyHumanities / WileyHealth / WileyEconomics / WileyPolitics / WileyPsychology / WileyEcolEvol / WileyNeuro / wileyearthspace / WileyEngineer / wiley_finance

If you're unsure what to say, you can refer to this article: https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive