Case On Point
Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive
(U.S. Ct. of App. for the 2d Cir. 2024)
Internet Archive is a non-profit with a mission to make books accessible on-line without charge to readers. It purchased books, scanned them in (without the copyright owner's permission), and then allowed readers to access the electronic copies. Its model permitted only as many readers to access the books on-line as the number of hard copies it owned. Non-circulating books of cooperating libraries were counted towards that number as well.
Hachette Book Group and other publishers sued Internet Archive for copyright infringement. Internet Archive defended, claiming that its activities fell within the "fair use" defense to copyright infringement. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs, holding that the fair use doctrine did not apply because:
- Interactive Archive's use of the infringed works was not in any way transformative;
- the copied works were creative works of fiction and non-fiction, not merely factual compilations, and therefore entitled to substantial protection;
- the works were copied in their entirety;
- the distribution of the copies for free adversely affected the market for the original works.
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