Your periodic reminder that Penguin Random House LLC, Hachette Book Group, Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC. are suing the Internet Archive:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17211300/hachette-book-group-inc-v-internet-archive/
Until they figure this out I'm being extra careful to not add to their legal fund by purchasing the plaintiffs' materials.
Michael W Lucas¹
@craigmaloney This lawsuit has a bunch of valid points that are irrelevant to the publishers but important to authors.
And a bunch of garbage that nobody wants.
@mwlucas Agreed. What I wish would happen is having an adult conversation on the length of copyright and how author works become brands long after the author has shirked the mortal coil, and how publishers don't have the author's best interests at heart.
What I fear is that they'll shut down the Internet Archive because folks don't understand what controlled lending is in this case.
It's a case I'm following closely because I fear the long-standing effects of it.
@craigmaloney @mwlucas And I hope that cases like this get thrown out until audited financials are part of the arguments.
Speaking as a sometime and small time publisher, there is actually very little measurable harm in piracy, but it does help advertising.
Which leads me to theorise that market harm may only be a thing at the scale where a global author brand is already strongly established, and advertising is no longer a sink or swim game.
Piracy inflicts a small harm on us.
Piracy inflicts a huge harm on blockbuster authors like Stephen King and John Grisham. You know, the darlings of "we only publish bestsellers" trad pub. Their sales have plunged, as have their advances.
I have an alternate biz plan for that eventuality., should I ever be hit by lightning. (I won't be, but if.)
The business of trad pub is literally dying, and their corporate conglomerate overlords demand financial performance anyway. It will only get uglier.
@mwlucas It's interesting that the market harm piece seems to be the sticking point in their fair use argument. The optimist in me hopes that they finally pry open some financials on how piracy actually affects the bottom line.
The pessimist in me says the publishers won't divulge this because it's "private" information.