Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
We're talking slightly at cross-purposes.
There are (at least) three different types of books at archive.org.
1. Scans of public domain books, which are perfectly legal.
2. Copies of copyrighted books which can be loaned. This is what the disputes mentioned previously are concerning.
3. Unregulated uploads of books by third parties. This is where the pirated material is.
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Correct.
Use case number 2 is what the ruckus is over. The IA assert fair use allows them to create and lend out one ebook copy for every physical copy they own.
Authors and publishers disagree.
They are not necessarily wrong: fair use doctrine is meant to cover limited uses for personal, educational, or critical use.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
Creating derivative products is mostly limited to parodies and ebooks are understood to be a separate and distinct product from a print book, requiring explicit licenses from the creator.
Random House tried and failed to argue in court that a contract to publish in print implied a license to produce ebooks and audiobooks. If publishers and libraries need distinct licenses to distribute ebooks so should the IA. I wouldn't expect them to prevail.