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'Science Fiction Writers of America' Accuse Internet Archive of Piracy (sfwa.org)
An anonymous reader writes:
The "Open Library" project of the nonprofit Internet Archive has been scanning books and offering "loans" of DRM-protected versions for e-readers (which expire after the loan period expires). This week the Legal Affairs Committe of the Science Fiction Writers of America issued a new "Infringement Alert" on the practice, complaining that "an unreadable copy of the book is saved on users' devices...and can be made readable by stripping DRM protection."
The objection, argues SFWA President Cat Rambo, is that "writers' work is being scanned in and put up for access without notifying them... it is up to the individual writer whether or not their work should be made available in this way." But the infringement alert takes the criticism even further. "We suspect that this is the world's largest ongoing project of unremunerated digital distribution of entire in-copyright books."
The Digital Reader blog points out one great irony. "The program initially launched in 2007. It has been running for ten years, and the SFWA only just now noticed." They add that SFWA's tardiness "leaves critical legal issues unresolved."
"Remember, Google won the Google Books case, and had its scanning activities legalized as fair use ex post facto... [I]n fact the Internet Archive has a stronger case than Google did; the latter had a commercial interest in its scans, while the Internet Archive is a non-profit out to serve the public good."
The objection, argues SFWA President Cat Rambo, is that "writers' work is being scanned in and put up for access without notifying them... it is up to the individual writer whether or not their work should be made available in this way." But the infringement alert takes the criticism even further. "We suspect that this is the world's largest ongoing project of unremunerated digital distribution of entire in-copyright books."
The Digital Reader blog points out one great irony. "The program initially launched in 2007. It has been running for ten years, and the SFWA only just now noticed." They add that SFWA's tardiness "leaves critical legal issues unresolved."
"Remember, Google won the Google Books case, and had its scanning activities legalized as fair use ex post facto... [I]n fact the Internet Archive has a stronger case than Google did; the latter had a commercial interest in its scans, while the Internet Archive is a non-profit out to serve the public good."
It should be illegal to read a book without the author's permission.
don't care. offtopic. boring.
who are behind this SFWA thing? So we can avoid them in the future, cause they obviously suck at thinking about technology, the future and what it means for society.
I could understand if it was org for writers of world war 2 fiction, regency romances or other stuff for old farts doing this, but SF?
I can take a library book to a copy machine and make a copy, but that's not on the library.
Or is it hypocrisy? Science fiction writers have long history of "borrowing" others' work. Robert Heinlein even made reference to it in Glory Road: "That's the way with writers; they'll steal anything, file off the serial numbers, and claim it for their own."
A court sided with Google on the "fair use" question mostly because Google's scanning process (a) was transformative and (b) did not substantially affect the market for the original work. Google provided a way to search within books -- which was not a capability offered before -- and when Google shows the context from the original work, it does not show all the pages of the book. Instead, it cuts chunks out so that readers have a reason to get the book through an authorized channel. The decision did not depend on whether Google is a for-profit or non-profit enterprise, because copyright law does not inquire about that.
In this case, the Internet Archive doesn't have either of those copyright-relevant factors on its side.
The AC who submitted the story also distorts what TFA said "leaves critical legal issues unresolved": It is not the fact that SFWA is raising a hue and cry 10 years after the Internet Archive launched this effort, but rather the fact that much of what the Internet Archive does goes below the radar of content creators in general.
Every time I go into my local library and borrow a book for free, I'm depriving the author of a royalty payment. What this does is make these books more accessible, but many other real world libraries are moving to this model of borrowing as well.
Never heard of that site before. Gonna check it out now.
This way nobody can take them down. The internet is worthless if anybody can decide what can or cannot be posted.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Historically libraries didn't make royalty payments. Yes, one book was purchased, and I imagine that local libraries that have gone down this route buy ONE e-copy which they make available to their borrowers. So the fight is over ONE copy owned by the Internet Archive or not. If the book has to be disassembled to be scanned in successfully then that's one book that is no longer alive, being replaced by one electronic copy.
I stand by the claim this is merely a quantitative difference; YMMV
My own local library does something similar. There is and should be nothing wrong with offering books for loan regardless of format at long as the copy is legitimately purchased. Publishers have hated Libraries since they started and they want to use "electronic" as an attempt to license the book instead of buying it.
The courts will shoot this down, there is a long legal history for Library's loaning books being perfectly legal all the way back into english common law, to rules in the writers favor this the supreme court would need to undo 200 years of precedent. They generally don't do that for anything but the most extreme of situations.
Libraries exist, they loan books, whether they are digital or paper and it's all perfectly legal.
and we should also have it a hanging offense for fake news and anyone wrongly accusing anyone...might help this kinda bullshit
and have a public domain seeing how we citizens are footing the bill for lazy smucks that write one book then sit back and do shit fuck all for years.
It wasn't until 2010 that the Open Library started lending copyrighted books, and then only to people with library cards from specific libraries. I have no idea when this was opened to the public at large, with no need to be a member of a library.
Discussion of the legality of this have been around from 2010, and it indeed seems to me a thorny legal issue. One would hope that at some point this will reach court and an actual decision is made or the right to lend works. If that's indeed a right, it could transform the digital goods market, which so far is locked to a 'purchase only for yourself' paradigm.
Ebooks can be made readable by stripping DRM protection, much like gold bars can be made accessible by stripping those pesky vaults?
" ... The Digital Reader blog points out one great irony. "The program initially launched in 2007. It has been running for ten years, and the SFWA only just now noticed." They add that SFWA's tardiness "leaves critical legal issues unresolved." ..."
I have no idea which "critical legal issues" might exist. Copyright is inalienable ... a copyright owner has no obligation to act when made aware of infringement, and the right does not change simply because infringement was not acted upon.
YMMV!
A visit to the site reveals that only some books are borrowable: others you have to get in line for, implying they restrict borrowing. The parallel with a library is thus precise.
Seriously?
Look, idiots. I'm not going to buy any American sci-fi until you get rid of that thing.
Is it bad that I immediately thought of this?
Ms Rambo is probably sick of that joke...
BOOM. No more "archive"
The "Interney Archive" is FOR SHIT.
In my opintion,The library can do it
While a rational (or at least under the illusion that the law matters) person will think that The Internet Library has a better case than Google and so logically should also prevail, the opposite will probably happen. Google is making money off it, but with deep pockets, an army of lawyers, and plenty of politicians that owe them favors. They can easily steam roll the authors and publishing industry. Even if the Internet Library have a wide support base among regular folks, they have so little economical and political clout that the publishig industry will have the upper hand. This Is Not Allowed because it is not a Too Big To Fail that is profiting from this activity.
I was not aware the Internet Archive had opened up their lending program. I mostly just use the Wayback Machine. Thank you SFWA. (And Ms. Streisand.)
As a visit will reveal. So there's no fundamental difference except that I'm using an internet library, not a local government e-library?
You can't check out many books - they offer to put you on a waiting list.
The OP complains that the process leaves a blocked copy of the book on the device of people who've returned it. That's a different issue.