Internet Archive’s Public Interest Defense May Fall Short

Book publishers’ copyright lawsuit against the Internet Archive could upend the free digital library’s coronavirus-driven initiative, and signal that nonprofit status and claims of public benefit don’t erase liability.

Authors and publishers’ concerns were simmering even before the nonprofit archive’s “National Emergency Library” prompted the lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The initiative allows access to its 1.3 million books collection, removing the limit on how many copies can be checked out at a given time. The complaint asks for an injunction blocking dissemination of all the publishers’ works.

The Internet ...