Internet Archive Defends Massive Online ‘Emergency Library’

"The Internet Archive, a digital library that offers free checkouts, is defending the expansion of access to its 1.4 million-book collection, claiming fair use while public libraries are paralyzed by the coronavirus shutdown.

In late March, the nonprofit organization started its “National Emergency Library” initiative, suspending waitlists for in-copyright materials until June 30 or the end of the national emergency, whichever is later.

“The National Emergency Library was developed to address a temporary and significant need in our communities—for the first time in our nation’s history, the entire physical library system is offline and unavailable,” the nonprofit organization wrote in an April 10 letter to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), responding to criticism from the lawmaker and authors over the change.

The conflict raises the question of whether or how a sudden mass disruption of educational resources might influence a fair use analysis, which allows infringement in some circumstances.

The letter comes after Tillis, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property panel, wrote two days earlier that he’s “deeply concerned” that the initiative is “operating outside the boundaries” of copyright law...."