Announced today, the Internet Archive has been designated as a federal depository library by Senator Alex Padilla. The designation was made via letter to Scott Matheson, Superintendent of Documents at the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Announced today, the Internet Archive has been designated as a federal depository library by Senator Alex Padilla. The designation was made via letter to Scott Matheson, Superintendent of Documents at the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Is this something the Internet Archive wanted? And why?
Yes they wanted it. If they’re legally considered a library, copyright holders can’t sue them for copyright infringement.
There have been a couple of lawsuits against the internet archive in this vein.
“The Internet Archive, a 501©(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, people with print disabilities, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.” - from their About page.
I don’t think that is how it works
Publishers have been suing libraries
Publishers have been suing libraries for book ban BS. Not for copyright infringement.
Yes, because it gives them full legal access to share basically everything ever published by the US government. It’s not a magic bullet for all their woes or anything, but it is one less thing to worry about.
I don’t think it’s so much one less thing to worry about, rather it gives them some way to argue that they shouldn’t be shut down as the result of any lawsuit. But that doesn’t mean such an argument would be successful.