Library Copyright Alliance Issues Statement on Authors Guild v. HathiTrust (Sept. 14, '11)

"Today, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) released the following statement concerning the lawsuit, Authors Guild, Inc., et al. v. HathiTrust et al., against HathiTrust and its research library partners...[:] We are deeply disappointed by the Authors Guild’s decision to file a lawsuit, Authors Guild, Inc. et al. v. HathiTrust et al., against HathiTrust and its research library partners. The case has no merit, and completely disregards the rights of libraries and their users under the law, especially fair use....The majority of [the 10 million works in the HathiTrust] are not available commercially and will disappear completely if not for library stewardship. We applaud the modest steps HathiTrust and its partners have taken to foster those “orphan” works whose owners have abandoned them to library care....It is deplorable that eight authors and three special interest groups are trying to dismantle this invaluable resource out of a misplaced fear of the digital future...."