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Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

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Re: Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

#5

Post by causality0 »

If there's copyrighted material on the Archive you find valuable, download and save it now before it's the target of the next lawsuit. I expect it won't be long before you can't get old magazines or other nostalgic and niche material. This is exactly what we all said would happen when the IA gave a giant "Fuck You!" to copyright holders with the Emergency Library. The era of copyright holders ignoring the IA if they're not actively making money off the material is officially over.

Re: Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

#6

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

While I strongly disagree with the length of copyright protection, after reading this and reading more about the case, from a purely legal perspective, I just don't see how IA has any defense. They basically just seem to be saying "these are old records, so we should be able to copy them. Also, our work is mainly for academic researchers." My guess is that they are arguing fair use, but I just don't see how that applies here when they make copyrighted works available, for free, over the Internet.

Would appreciate it if folks would abstain from responding with how the record companies are greedy bastards, or how the IA is doing great work, or how copyright protection has strayed from its original goals of encouraging innovative new works to become a victim of rent-seeking behavior, or that the law itself is unjust here. All of that I wholeheartedly agree with. I'm not a lawyer, and I'm just interested in trying to understand if they have any legal defense that isn't going to get laughed out of court.

Re: Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

#7

Post by ocdtrekkie »

causality0 wrote: post #5

If there's copyrighted material on the Archive you find valuable, download and save it now before it's the target of the next lawsuit. I expect it won't be long before you can't get old magazines or other nostalgic and niche material. This is exactly what we all said would happen when the IA gave a giant "Fuck You!" to copyright holders with the Emergency Library. The era of copyright holders ignoring the IA if they'…

Yeah, the NEL will probably go down as one of the dumbest decisions in Internet history. The IA got away with a lot of stuff and then just decided throwing out all semblance of copyright credibility was the right call, for some reason. That's a cat they can't put back in the bag either, as long as the same people are running the show there's no reason to believe the IA won't do future stunts either.

Re: Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

#8

Post by ghaff »

causality0 wrote: post #5

If there's copyrighted material on the Archive you find valuable, download and save it now before it's the target of the next lawsuit. I expect it won't be long before you can't get old magazines or other nostalgic and niche material. This is exactly what we all said would happen when the IA gave a giant "Fuck You!" to copyright holders with the Emergency Library. The era of copyright holders ignoring the IA if they'…

The IA managed for years to cruise under the radar by mostly hosting things no publisher or label cared about and removing it if someone did care. But now that the ant’s nest is kicked up it’s easy to imagine a lot of things are now seen as fair game.

Re: Internet Archive responds to recording industry lawsuit targeting obsolete media

#9

Post by throwayay583739 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

While I strongly disagree with the length of copyright protection, after reading this and reading more about the case, from a purely legal perspective, I just don't see how IA has any defense. They basically just seem to be saying "these are old records, so we should be able to copy them. Also, our work is mainly for academic researchers." My guess is that they are arguing fair use, but I just don't see how that appl…

This is a little meta but: it's great how you predicted a possible unproductive line of discussion that might result from your question and headed it off with a clarification. Props for communications skills.

I'm also a little sad that this disclaimer is even needed. I think it says something about how the character of HN has changed in the last ten years--there's no longer an assumption that the people on the other end of the wire assume curiosity and good will. There's a lot more heat here these days.

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