Publishers File for Summary Judgment Against the Internet Archive

In a week roiled by difficult news - not least today's (July 8) assassination of Japan's Shinzo Abe - four primary member-publishers of the Association of American PublishersThe national trade association of the American book publishing industry; AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies have filed a motion for summary judgment against the Internet Archive in this case that has international implications because of the reach of Internet connectivity. A "summary judgment" is a way for one party to win a case without a trial.

As Publishing Perspectives readers will recognize, this is a stage in two years of litigation that began in early June 2020, when the publishers, three of them among the Big Five, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York...

The 2020 lawsuit asked the court to enjoin the San Francisco-based Internet Archive's "scanning, public display, and distribution of entire literary works"-which it has offered to the international public through what the association terms "global-facing businesses" branded the "Open Library" and "National Emergency Library."