Internet Archive Digital Lending Not Fair Use, 2nd Cir. Says (1)

Internet Archive’s “controlled digital lending” system and removal of borrowing controls during the pandemic don’t qualify as fair use, the Second Circuit affirmed Wednesday.

Four major book publishers again thwarted the online repository’s defense that its one-to-one lending practices mirrored those of traditional libraries, this time at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Copying books in their entirety isn’t transformative, and lending them for free competes with the publishers’s own book and ebook offerings, the unanimous panel said.

The opinion by Circuit Judge Beth Robinson undercuts the legal basis for a digital lending practice promoted by Internet ...