this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Definitely won't find these books on Anna's Archive /s

[–] Bull205@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is cool. Thank you for sharing

[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

It's really cool. I learned about it from the megathread: https://rentry.co/megathread-books#annas-archive

[–] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 22 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

It would be a shame if another website pop up and uploaded these removed book to it and call it, idk, Internet Alexandria or something.

[–] blindsight@beehaw.org 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I dunno. I think there are enough things named after men.

Maybe a nice neutral woman's name... Like, Anna?

And it's more about preservation and archival, so I think it should be called an Archive, not a library.

Yeah, Anna's Archive. Great name. Let's go with that one.

[–] Titou@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago

Would be a shame if they decided to call it something with the letter z and the word library in it

[–] laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago

It's great that these projects already exist

but it hurts accessibility that you need to be "in the know" to find out about it.

every media outlet has to mention WayBackMachine; it's such a great outreach and legitimizing

[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 weeks ago

wait until you hear about libgen

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

You can't delete what was already destroyed!

[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 weeks ago

Modern version of barbarians burning the library of Alexandria.

[–] Truck_kun@beehaw.org 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This only makes me favor copyright reform more. Should really cut that down to 25 years or less; anything from before the 21st century should be public domain by now.

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[–] dillekant@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Modern day book burning. Done by the writers this time.

[–] zabadoh@ani.social 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't blame the writers, some of whom are long dead, and some titles are long out of print.

[–] dillekant@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

Writers give publishers legitimacy. Publishers will regularly pull the writers out to trot out some "copyright is important" line.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 weeks ago
[–] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

🏴‍☠️

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

I'd be all for altering definitions in a way that enables them to do stuff like the controlled lending system (also just digitizing shit generally).

But I think the law is pretty clear, and a precedent calling their use case fair use would be mind blowing. You need new, much more common sense IP legislation that redefines consumer rights in a digital world.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

But I think the law is pretty clear, and a precedent calling their use case fair use would be mind blowing. You need new, much more common sense IP legislation that redefines consumer rights in a digital world.

Indeed. I'm a big supporter of IA's mission, and I'm a big supporter of piracy (copyright has gone insane over the years), but this outcome was obvious from the moment IA did this and it was a mistake for them to fight this fight. They should focus on preservation. Let the EFF handle the lawsuits, and let Library Genesis handle the illegal distribution of books. Everyone focus on what they're best at.

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Their distribution of books is completely legal.

Corporations just have more money to warp the laws in their favour.

That's why the Archive is appealing: they still believe they are right.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There's really no credible argument that their distribution of books even might be legal.

Their only defense is fair use, and there's no precedent for a "fair use" defense justifying copying a work wholesale for mass distribution. (Yes, "one copy at a time" to multiple people is mass distribution.) Copying a whole work has effectively only qualified as fair use when that copy is not re-distributed, and is actually for a personal backup.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Their distribution of books is completely legal.

Corporations just have more money to warp the laws in their favour.

You just contradicted yourself in two sentences.

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[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

While digital lending is fun and games it wouldnt work on a scale of the Internet Archive. The wait list would be tremendous for popular books.
Go use and support your local library if possible and donate a fiver to IA for their other services they offer

[–] mr_satan@monyet.cc 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How is IAs approach much different to that of a regular library?

True, they were digitising physical books and lending copies. But this is not much different from how a regular library works (assuming controlled digital lending, yeah I heard aboud Covid period 😕).

I'm not an expert on American law (know nothing about it), but reading the articles and comments I thing there's an argument to be made for IA functioning as a library.

Because it's a copy. It's literally that simple.

Libraries can operate because of first sale doctrine. You can do almost whatever you want with a physical object that contains a copyrighted work.

What you can't do is copy it. There is no possible legal way to distribute a digital copy of a work without an explicit license from the copyright holder. There isn't even a legal concept of "owning" a digital copy. You purchase a license.

[–] laserjet@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

same same same

can anyone please point me to some piece of writing that explains how IA didn't willfully self destruct?

everything i read about this legal action, even when I read IA's stuff about, sounds moronic. doomed to fail and lose big for themselves and for others by setting a loser precident.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

By "controlled lending system," do you mean the library? If so, it is ridiculously expensive for them to offer ebooks and audiobooks. One ebook costs $60-100 and they can only lend the licensed copy for two years. You would think audiobooks would be more expensive to do but publishers charge roughly the same.

[–] conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

What Internet Archive did is digitized physical books, then loaned out their "one copy" with DRM. Their assertion is that this constitutes fair use. I don't really think there's any merit to that argument based on the law and the body of precedent, and fundamentally tend to dislike legislation from the bench (judges just arbitrarily reinterpreting laws). Passing new laws and restructuring how IP law works is the job of the legislature, not the judiciary.

IA then made this worse by taking the already super tenuous "fair use" argument and throwing it out the window by removing the lending limits during Covid. It was waving a red flag in front of IP holders and begging them to take aggressive action.

[–] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 weeks ago

I think if they hadn't abandoned the CDL modern during the pandemic, they could have kept it going indefinitely. Even if it wasn't likely fair use, it might have been. More than that, it would have been bad press for the publisher to make the first move.

Abandoning CDL during the pandemic was just waving a red flag and giving the publishers a slam dunk case.

I think if IA had just held the line with CDL, they could have over time just effectively established a precedent. Lost opportunity.

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[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Sign the petition! Not sure if it is going to make any difference, but it just takes a couple of minutes. https://www.change.org/p/let-readers-read-an-open-letter-to-the-publishers-in-hachette-v-internet-archive

[–] istanbullu@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

has change.org ever changed anything?

Well it's made a lot of people feel satisfied that they've done their bit and had their say.

[–] simon574@feddit.de 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

change.org doesn't like my mail address for some reason, and they tried trick me into subscribing to their newsletter :/

[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah I know, change.org isn't great but what other options do we have?

[–] nintendiator@feddit.cl 2 points 3 weeks ago

Maybe filing a charge.org petition to raise an alternative service to charge.org. Maybe something in the Fediverse, even!

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] unrushed233@lemmings.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Sucks for Americans that Biden got rid of the option

That really sucks

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

At least it didn't get shut down

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 3 points 3 weeks ago

They're appealing the decision so there's still opportunity for IA to throw good money after bad on this.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago

So fucking convenient that the AAP does not name the publishers in the law suit. Cowards the lot of them.

[–] Flynn_Mandrake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

Well, that's shit news

[–] veniasilente@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

A sad day, but nothing that can't be fixed by reuploading the files.

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