AAP criticizes Internet Archive's fair-use arguments after the district court ruling
Association of American PublishersAssociation of American Publishers President and CEO Maria A. Pallante
AAP President and CEO Maria A. Pallante welcomes the summary judgment against the Internet Archive, says the court rejected arguments that would have stretched fair use, and thanks public libraries that lend through ebook licenses.
“arguments that would have pushed fair use to illogical markers”
Official statement
Where this statement fits
Should the Internet Archive need publishers' permission to lend scans of in-copyright books it owns?
In June 2020, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House sued the Internet Archive for scanning print books and lending the digital copies online without their permission, usually one borrower at a time for each print copy the Archive or a partner library owned. A federal district court in New York rejected the Archive's fair-use defense on March 24, 2023, and on September 4, 2024, the Second Circuit affirmed, finding the lending noncommercial but not transformative and declining to carve out books the Archive owns itself. The Archive, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the practice controlled digital lending and said it is what libraries have always done with the books they acquire; the Association of American Publishers said authors and publishers have the right to license and be paid for their books. On December 4, 2024, the Archive said it would not seek Supreme Court review, ending the case, but would keep advocating for libraries to own and lend digital books. The dispute is over whether owning a print copy of an in-copyright book should let the Archive lend a scan of it without the publisher's permission.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
AAP statement responding to the district court's judgment against Internet Archive.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
AAP's March 24, 2023 release says the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment for Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House and rejected the Archive's request for summary judgment. Pallante's statement opens by thanking the court for its "unequivocal affirmation of the Copyright Act and respect for established precedent".
After the quotation
Pallante says the court has shown the importance of authors, publishers and creative markets in a global society. She then thanks the public libraries that serve their communities through licensed ebooks and says AAP hopes the opinion "will prove educational to the defendant and anyone else who finds public laws inconvenient to their own interests".
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case asks whether the Internet Archive should need publishers' permission to lend scans of in-copyright books it owns. After the district court ruled for the publishers, AAP President and CEO Maria A. Pallante praises the court for "rejecting arguments that would have pushed fair use to illogical markers" and thanks public libraries that serve their communities "through lawful eBook licenses". That opposes the Archive's lending without the publishers' permission, so we labeled it Condemned. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization; it loses because she rejects the Archive's fair-use defense outright rather than disputing how it is described.
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Corrections to this statement
These notices document reporting corrections, classification changes, and topic-label updates.
Reporting correction
Correction to: Statement by Association of American Publishers
- Previous language
- Position Event #5552's summary said AAP President Maria Pallante "praises the court's treatment of copyright and licensed library ebooks."
- Corrected language
- Pallante welcomes the summary judgment, says the court rejected arguments that would have stretched fair use, and thanks public libraries that lend through ebook licenses.
In AAP's March 24, 2023 statement, Pallante thanks the public libraries that serve their communities through ebook licenses; she does not attribute anything about licensed ebooks to the court. The summary was revised to match. The quotation, label and source are unchanged.
This corrects our account of what happened.
AAP statement responding to the district court's judgment against Internet Archive.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)More from this case
Read the full caseAAP says authors and publishers should control the terms of digital access
Association of American Publishers
“when authors and their publisher licensees can decide the terms on which they make their works available.”Read statement
AAP says unauthorized lending harms the public interest
Association of American Publishers
“infringement is both costly and antithetical to the public interest.”Read statement
Internet Archive continues to defend library lending rights
Internet Archive
“will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books.”Read statement
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- AAP criticizes Internet Archive's fair-use arguments after the district court ruling
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The Dispute Index. "AAP criticizes Internet Archive's fair-use arguments after the district court ruling". First published: 2026-10-11. Last updated: 2026-10-11. https://disputeindex.com/events/5552-aap-president-and-ceo-maria-a-pallante-welcomes