Judge blocks Internet Archive from sharing copyrighted books

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has approved a permanent injunction against the online Internet Archive from scanning and sharing copyrighted books already made available by publishers. The judge had already ruled in March that the Internet Archive had illegally offered free e-editions of 127 books in copyright, including works by J.D. Salinger and Toni Morrison. Four leading publishers had sued the Archive in 2020 in response to its establishing a “National Emergency Library” early in the pandemic, when most libraries and bookstores were shutdown. The Archive had contended that it was protected by fair use and that it had a larger mission to make information as widely accessible as possible.