There is a resource floating around out there- even recommended by NPR that was a huge topic on Twitter yesterday. The "National Emergency Library" or the Internet Archive has become pretty controversial. I just wanted to share the following information with you. so you could be aware.
I am copying a post from the author Jordan Sonnenblick in the School Librarian's Network on Facebook where he explains the site and why it is essentially a pirate site. See below. Additionally, I included a
short article here that explains the legal issue pretty well. It sounds like it could be a big legal mess- so I am staying away from it. Plus, it bugs me that they are taking the author's work illegally and not paying them for it.
"The Association of American Publishers has issued a release on this blatant attack on copyright. At the end of the long article, it says "this latest move makes an eventual lawsuit all but inevitable." Do you want your name, or the name of your school or library district, tangled up in this mess?
Here's the release. Please share widely:
"To make a real difference for the nation and the world," the Internet Archive unilaterally granted itself emergency powers to lend a corpus of over 1.4 million ebooks without any restrictions, contrary to its own stated policies. They are
calling it a "National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners," lasting at least through June 30.
In a modest concession, authors can opt their books out [send an email to
info@archive.org with National Emergency Library Removal Request as the subject line. Please include each URL of the book or books you would like to have removed]. They also "recognize that authors and publishers are going to be impacted by this global pandemic as well. We encourage all readers who are in a position to buy books to do so, ideally while also supporting your local bookstore."
The IA, along with some participating libraries, invented what they call "controlled digital lending" in 2011, and the practice has been controversial among authors and publishers but unchallenged in court up until now. The idea was to digitize in copyright, out of print books from library shelves that are not available as ebooks, and lend them under the same one copy per user at a time principal that has been applied to authorized library lending of ebooks.
There is a whole website devoted to explaining why "controlled digital lending" might be considered Fair Use under copyright law.
By their own standards and pledges, making a single digitized print copy available for simultaneous -- let alone unlimited -- use "would
not be considered properly implemented CDL or qualify for" Fair Use under their analysis.
President and ceo of the Association of American Publishers Maria A. Pallante told us in a written statement: "We are stunned by the Internet Archive's aggressive, unlawful, and opportunistic attack on the rights of authors and publishers in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. As noted
here publishers are working tirelessly to support the public with numerous, innovative, and socially-aware programs that address every side of the crisis: providing free global access to research and medical journals that pertain to the virus; offering complementary digital education materials to schools and parents; and expanding powerful storytelling platforms for readers of all ages.
"It is the height of hypocrisy that the Internet Archive is choosing this moment – when lives, livelihoods and the economy are all in jeopardy – to make a cynical play to undermine copyright, and all the scientific, creative and economic opportunity that it supports."
While no one is likely to take the Internet Archive to court during the crisis, this latest move makes an eventual lawsuit all but inevitable."
