cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1811388
Archived version: https://archive.ph/K0ult
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230823182709/https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/23/reclaiming-control-the-internet-archive-empowers-people-so-gatekeepers-keep-suing/
I know I’m going to get downvoted for saying this, because I always do, but you guys do realize that there’s a legitimate basis for the legal claim against them right?
99.99% of what they do is fantastic, but honestly I think it was really fucking stupid for them to archive copyrighted material and allow for distribution without following proper legal procedures.
We need to change the laws for sure, but in the meantime, if you are a company, don’t expect to be able to distribute copyrighted materials for free without permission from the copyright holder, that’s fucking stupid.
While that might be true in some edge cases, most of the content they archive is either no longer distributed through any legal means (e.g. original 78rpm discs) or copyright doesn’t even apply (e.g. recipes).
And the digital book program been operating for a long time as a digital library, but Internet Archive decided to remove some restrictions during the pandemic to allow students to access materials needed for their studies and of course copyright trolls jumped on a chance to fuck everyone over.
While claims are legitimate in a most broad sense, they are completely baseless from the intent of copyright. You need a profit motive for copyright to be considered infringement and in neither of these cases it exists.
Wut? They’re a library. Lending books is what they’re supposed to do.
Yeah let’s see how that argument plays out in court
I agree 100%. They do extremely important work, but this was extremely shortsighted and a bad judgment call on their part.
Must be a pirate convention on the high seas today or something because nobody seems to be downvoting me this time around.