By Claire Booth
BUT. There is
one entity that is trying to opportunistically capitalize on this moment in
time. By stealing. An outfit called the Internet Archive has, for years, been scanning
and putting content online. Some are works in the public domain (like Hamlet,
or Edgar Allan Poe). Those are absolutely allowed to be given away for free.
But others are books, plays, or poems still under copyright. Which means you
need permission and that’s something the Internet Archive has, in many
instances, not gotten. The one limit they’ve placed on things is that there are
only so many “copies” and you need to wait in line to read something.
That is no longer
the case. Internet Archive announced this week that it has suspended its
waitlist requirements. Anyone can check out a digital/scanned book from their “collection.”
They’re calling it the “National Emergency Library” and trying to sell it as
some sort of socially responsible act.
One of my
books, The False Prophet: Conspiracy, Extortion and Murder in the Name of
God, is listed on this website. The site isn’t lending out a hard copy that
it bought, which would be fine. It isn’t lending out an e-book version that it
bought, which works like a physical version and can only be loaned out once at
a time. Instead, it is lending out a scanned version. And as far as I understand
it, with the elimination of a waitlist, it’s essentially creating additional
e-copies of my book out of thin air without my permission. This violates my
copyright.
So why would
I be upset if this potentially gets my book in the hands of readers? Here's why:
1. They
didn't ask first.
2. In the Internet
Archive’s blog post on this, it says: “The books that we’ve digitized have been
acquired with a focus on materials published during the 20th century, the vast
majority of which do not have a commercially available ebook.” I call BS.
Because guess what? My ebook is commercially available, a fact that Google can
tell you in under two seconds. One friend found eight of her books, both
fiction and non-fiction and all very much still commercially available, on this
website. That’s almost her entire writing life’s work. Another looked up his
name and found one of his novels that still has the Boston Public Library
sticker and bar code on the cover. If someone found that at a used book sale
and plunked down a dollar for it, good for them. They can then do what they
want with it—except run off multiple copies and sell them. This is exactly what
the “National Emergency Library” is doing.
3. I’m
getting no compensation for what should be multiple sales of my book.
4. My
non-fiction ebook costs $7.99 (and I don’t even get that full amount). I think
that's a fair price for the four years it took me to report, research and
write. But heck, if you the reader can't afford that and get in touch with me directly, I'll gladly and cheerfully send you one for free. At least
then I would be the one deciding to give away my
work.
Here’s what the
Authors Guild organization had to say on Friday:
IA is using a
global crisis to advance a copyright ideology that violates current federal law
and hurts most authors. It has misrepresented the nature and legality of the
project through a deceptive publicity campaign. Despite giving off the
impression that it is expanding access to older and public domain books, a
large proportion of the books on Open Library are in fact recent in-copyright
books that publishers and authors rely on for critical revenue. Acting as a
piracy site—of which there already are too many—the Internet Archive tramples on
authors’ rights by giving away their books to the world.
Also
Friday, the Association of American Publishers said this:
We are
stunned by the Internet Archive’s aggressive, unlawful, and opportunistic
attack on the rights of authors and publishers in the midst of the novel
coronavirus pandemic.
Publishers
are working
tirelessly to support the public with numerous, innovative,
and socially-aware programs that address every side of the crisis:
providing free global access to research and medical journals that
pertain to the virus; offering complementary digital education materials to
schools and parents; and expanding powerful storytelling platforms for readers
of all ages.
It is the
height of hypocrisy that the Internet Archive is choosing this moment – when
lives, livelihoods and the economy are all in jeopardy – to make a cynical play
to undermine copyright, and all the scientific, creative, and economic
opportunity that it supports.
I think it’s important
to point out here that I love, love, love legitimate libraries. I use them
regularly as a reader, I’ve done programs there as an author, and I donate to
them as a citizen. And I’m in awe as to how they’ve stepped up during this
pandemic. They’ve increased their digital access capabilities while having to
shut their physical locations. They’ve extended due dates. They’re running kids’
story times online. They’ve coordinated with online tutors in different
subjects. And probably done a dozen more things I don’t even know about.
Internet Archive
does finally say (in the second-to-last paragraph of their “National Emergency”
announcement) that it encourages those who can to buy books through independent
bookstores. It also encourages us authors to donate our books if it doesn’t already
have a copy. THAT should've been where they started this whole thing. Ask
first. Authors are some of the most generous people on the planet. We'd
probably say yes. Instead, these people are taking away the one sure thing we
have in this tough business--our copyright.
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