April 9, 2020
SENATE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CHAIRMAN ADDRESSES INTERNET ARCHIVE’S “NATIONAL EMERGENCY LIBRARY”
The Association of American Publishers notes with great appreciation the attention of Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, to the unprecedented and unlicensed “National Emergency Library” operated by the Internet Archive (IA) in a recent letter sent from Senator Tillis to IA’s founder. The so-called “Library” is distributing 1.4 million scanned books for free online, without any permission from authors and publishers and despite their strong objections to what many see as an opportunistic and unlawful attack on the copyright framework, education ecosystem, and economy.
“I am not aware of any measure under copyright law that permits a user of copyrighted works to unilaterally create an emergency copyright act,” reads the letter. “Indeed, I am deeply concerned that your ‘Library’ is operating outside the boundaries of the copyright law that Congress has enacted and alone has jurisdiction to amend.”
Read the full letter here.
See AAP’s recent statement on the “National Emergency Library” here. Learn about the many proactive and lawfully sound initiatives of publishers during the pandemic here.
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