A federal judge sided with four publishers who brought suit against an online repository for unlawfully scanning millions of copyrighted works and making them freely accessible to the public.

 Judge John G. Koeltl of the United States District Court in Manhattan determined that the Internet Archive was creating "derivative" works that required the authorization of the copyright owners.

The Archive did not alter the books in question, but rather scanned them and made them available as ebooks on its website.

"An ebook adapted from a print book is a prototypical example of a derivative work," noted Koeltl.

The Archive has stated that its acts are permitted by fair use rules and that it has historically had a larger aim of making material publicly available, a typical component in legal issues concerning internet copyright. The Archive declared on Friday that it will appeal the verdict.

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Brewster Kahle, the creator of the Internet Archive, noted in a blog post on Friday that "libraries are more than the customer support departments for corporate database systems." 

"Libraries must be allowed to continue playing the crucial role they have always played in society—owning, conserving, and lending books—if democracy is to flourish on a worldwide basis. We intend to challenge this decision since it is a setback for libraries, users, and authors."

In response to the Archive's National Emergency Library, a significant expansion of its ebook lending service started in the early weeks of the pandemic, when many physical libraries and bookstores had closed, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House sued in June 2020. 

The emergency library and the archive's previous, more constrained programme, regulated digital lending, were targets of the publishers' demands for action (CDL). Publishers listed the copyrighted writings that were made available as including pieces by Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger, and Terry Pratchett.

The Writers Guild was among those who opposed the emergency library, although other authors were in favour of it. In an essay that appeared in The New Yorker in March 2020, historian Jill Lepore pleaded with readers who were unable to purchase books or otherwise couldn't locate them during the epidemic to "please: join up, log on, and borrow!" from the Internet Archive.

The Association of American Publishers' president lauded the court ruling as an "unequivocal support of the Copyright Act and respect for established precedent" in a statement on Friday.

"The Court has emphasised the significance of writers, publishers, and legal markets in a global culture and global economy by dismissing the defendant's complicated claims. 

Copying and disseminating something that is not yours is immoral but not inventive or even challenging "Maria Pallante, president and CEO of the organisation, remarked.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organisation that was established in 1996 with the aim of creating an Internet library that would provide permanent access for researchers, historians, and academics to historical resources that were already in digital format. 

In contrast to typical libraries, it obtains books indirectly through contributions and purchases rather than directly through licence agreements with publishers. Millions of films, TV series, videos, audio recordings, and other things are also included in the collection.