EFF defends Internet Archive's lending as a public service
Electronic Frontier FoundationElectronic Frontier Foundation Legal Director Corynne McSherry
EFF announces its representation of Internet Archive. Its legal director, Corynne McSherry, calls controlled digital lending a public service and says it does not threaten publishers' businesses.
“EFF is proud to stand with the Archive and protect this important public service”
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
EFF press release announcing its legal representation of Internet Archive.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
EFF's June 25, 2020 release says it is joining the law firm Durie Tangri to defend the Archive against a lawsuit that threatens its controlled digital lending program. It says the program lets patrons borrow digital copies for two weeks or less, only as many at a time as the Archive and its partner libraries physically own, and that the four publishers claim it has cost them millions of dollars and threatens their businesses.
After the quotation
McSherry continues that controlled digital lending helps get books to teachers, children and the general public "at a time when that is more needed and more difficult than ever". The release then quotes Durie Tangri partner Joe Gratz saying the Archive lends library books to one patron at a time, as libraries have done for centuries.
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. Announcing that it would help defend the Archive, EFF quotes its legal director, Corynne McSherry, saying EFF is "proud to stand with the Archive and protect this important public service" and that controlled digital lending "is no threat to any publisher's bottom line". That defends the lending the publishers sued over, so we labeled it Defended or excused. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, since McSherry disputes the publishers' claim of financial harm; it loses because she also backs the lending as a public service.
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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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The Dispute Index. "EFF defends Internet Archive's lending as a public service". First published: 2026-10-11. Last updated: 2026-10-11. https://disputeindex.com/events/5554-eff-announces-its-representation-of-internet-archive-its