Court Should Rule in Favor of Publishers in Hachette v. Internet Archive, says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following Internet Archive’s request for summary judgment in Hachette v. Internet Archive, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from ITIF analyst Jaci McDole:

The court should find in favor of the publishers. Creators should be compensated for their works, regardless of format. Traditional libraries license digital works for this reason. Internet Archives used books from libraries to illegally create and loan digital copies of creators’ works under the guise of fair use. Fair use does not apply to copying and distributing entire works. And it does not apply when the alternative was for Internet Archive to pay for licenses for these works like others do. Instead, the organization chose to steal creative works protected by intellectual property (IP) rights.

Internet Archive argues because it is controlling limited distribution of its (illegally made) archive, it should be exempt from compensating rightsholders under copyright law. But that is not how the law works. The law does not allow people to legally rent out homes they hold no property rights to, regardless of how limited the access is. The same holds true for IP. Creators should not have their livelihoods stolen because anti-IP proponents want free stuff.