Copyright Office Skeptical of ‘Emergency Library’ Legality (2)

The Internet Archive’s “National Emergency Library,” an expansion of its free-checkout digital collections, should have considered asking authors and publishers to opt in to the service, the U.S. Copyright Office said.

The nonprofit digital library removed in March limits on how many people can borrow each of 1.4 million e-books at once, as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. But giving authors and publishers a chance to opt in, rather than making them opt out, “would have been beneficial.” the Copyright Office said in a May 15 response an inquiry about the initiative by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

“It would ...