Tag: archive
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator devs release a free archive of 23 playable prototypes
Developer Landfall – the studio behind wobbly strategy game Totally Accurate Battle Simulator – have released its next game, although game (singular) might be inaccurate. Landfall Archives is a digital museum of sorts, compiling 23 playable prototypes and demos from unreleased projects that never crossed the finish line. It’s out now, and best of all, it’s free.
Internet Archive loses first ruling in copyright lawsuit
A federal judge ruled against the digital database Internet Archive in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by four major publishers.
Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House sued Internet Archive following the implementation of its National Emergency Library at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to COVID, the Internet Archive lent e-books via a “controlled digital lending” system, or CDL: Libraries offer loans of digitized book copies on a one-to-one basis — that means that they circulate the exact number of copies they own. When the emergency library launched, Internet Archive removed all waitlists for books and lent out any amount of copies on a two-week basis.
On its blog, the archive’s director of open libraries Chris Freeland wrote that the emergency library was launched due to the sudden closures of libraries and schools. Publishers sued Internet Archive in June 2020, and soon after, the archive shut down the library.
This week, Judge John G. Koeltl of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan decided that Internet Archive produced “derivative” works that required permission from the copyright holders, the Associated Press reported.
The “nonprofit library” will appeal the decision, Freeland wrote on its blog. “Today’s lower court decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve,” he wrote.
“We will continue our work as a library,” he noted. “This case does not challenge many of the services we provide with digitized books including interlibrary loan, citation linking, access for the print-disabled, text and data mining, purchasing ebooks, and ongoing donation and preservation of books.”
“Libraries are more than the customer service departments for corporate database products. For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society—owning, preserving, and lending books,” said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle in a statement. “This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors and we plan to appeal it.”
Internet Archive violated publisher copyrights by lending ebooks, court rules
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in its high-profile case against a group of four US publishers led by Hachette Book Group. Per Reuters, Judge John G. Koeltl declared on Friday the nonprofit had infringed on the group’s copyrights by lending out digitally scanned copies of their books.
The lawsuit originated from the Internet Archive’s decision to launch the “National Emergency Library” during the early days of the pandemic. The program saw the organization offer more than 1.4 million free ebooks, including copyrighted works, in response to libraries worldwide closing their doors due to coronavirus lockdown measures.
Before March 2020, the Internet Archive’s Open Library program operated under what’s known as a “controlled digital lending” system, meaning there was often a waitlist to borrow a book from its collection. When the pandemic hit, the Internet Archive lifted those restrictions to make it easier for people to access reading material while stuck at home. The Copyright Alliance was quick to take issue with the effort. And in June 2020, Hachette, as well as HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and John Wiley & Sons, sued The Internet Archive, accusing the organization of enabling “willful mass copyright infringement.” That same month, the Internet Archive shuttered the National Emergency Program early.
Going into this week’s trial, the Internet Archive argued the initiative was protected by the principle of Fair Use, which allows the unlicensed use of copyrighted works under some circumstances. As The Verge notes, HathiTrust, an offshoot of the Google Books Search project, successfully used a similar argument in 2014 to fend off a legal challenge from The Authors Guild. However, Judge Koeltl rejected the Internet Archive’s stance, declaring “there is nothing transformative” about lending unauthorized copies of books. “Although [the Internet Archive] has the right to lend print books it lawfully acquired, it does not have the right to scan those books and lend the digital copies en masse,” he wrote. Maria Pallante, the president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said the ruling “underscored the importance of authors, publishers, and creative markets in a global society.”
On Saturday, the Internet Archive said it would appeal the decision. “Libraries are more than the customer service departments for corporate database products. For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society — owning, preserving, and lending book,” the nonprofit wrote in a blog post. “This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors and we plan to appeal it.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/internet-archive-violated-publisher-copyrights-by-lending-ebooks-court-rules-164629790.html?src=rss
Internet Archive Loses in Court. Judge Rules They Can’t Scan and Lend eBooks
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a lawsuit brought against it by four book publishers, deciding that the website does not have the right to scan books and lend them out like a library. Judge John G. Koeltl decided that the Internet Archive had done nothing more than create “derivative works,” and so would have needed authorization from the books’ copyright holders — the publishers — before lending them out through its National Emergency Library program.
The Internet Archive says it will appeal.
The decision was “a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve,” argued Chris Freeland, the director of Open Libraries at the Internet Archive. In a blog post he argued the decision “impacts libraries across the U.S. who rely on controlled digital lending to connect their patrons with books online.
It hurts authors by saying that unfair licensing models are the only way their books can be read online. And it holds back access to information in the digital age, harming all readers, everywhere.
The Verge adds that the judge rejected “fair use” arguments which had previously protected a 2014 digital book preservation project by Google Books and HathiTrust:
Koetl wrote that any “alleged benefits” from the Internet Archive’s library “cannot outweigh the market harm to the publishers,” declaring that “there is nothing transformative about [Internet Archive’s] copying and unauthorized lending,” and that copying these books doesn’t provide “criticism, commentary, or information about them.” He notes that the Google Books use was found “transformative” because it created a searchable database instead of simply publishing copies of books on the internet.
Koetl also dismissed arguments that the Internet Archive might theoretically have helped publishers sell more copies of their books, saying there was no direct evidence, and that it was “irrelevant” that the Internet Archive had purchased its own copies of the books before making copies for its online audience. According to data obtained during the trial, the Internet Archive currently hosts around 70,000 e-book “borrows” a day.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader esme for sharing the news.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Internet Archive has lost its first fight to scan and lend e-books like a library
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a lawsuit brought against it by four book publishers, deciding that the website does not have the right to scan books and lend them out like a library.
Judge John G. Koeltl decided that the Internet Archive had done nothing more than create “derivative works,” and so would have needed authorization from the books’ copyright holders — the publishers — before lending them out through its National Emergency Library program.
The Internet Archive says it will appeal. “Today’s lower court decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve,” Chris Freeland, the director of Open Libraries at the Internet…