Lawsuits: Publishers File Response to Internet Archive Motion

Yesterday (August 12, 2021), the group of publishers (plaintiffs) in Hachette Book Group, Inc. et al. v. Internet Archive filed a response to the August 9, 2021 letter motion filed by the Internet Archive (defendant) requesting a, “pre-motion discovery conference regarding a motion to compel the production of information regarding the commercial performance of books published by Plaintiffs…Plaintiffs contend that the Internet Archive infringed Plaintiffs’ copyrights by the non-profit digital lending of library books. The Internet Archive maintains that the challenged lending constitutes fair use under 17 U.S.C. § 107.”

From the August 12th (Plaintiffs) Response:

In short, Defendant’s letter motion should be denied because the enormous and costly burden to Plaintiffs far outweighs the negligible value (if any) of the evidence sought, especially given the lack of legally relevant results that it will yield and the delays it will cause to the case.

THE DATA IA SEEKS IS NOT MATERIAL AND CREATES A MASSIVE BURDEN

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In short, it is impossible to calculate the market harm of IA’s infringement based on the crude comparison IA proposes because there are innumerable reasons why one book sells more copies than another that have nothing to do with IA’s infringement. IA’s demand for this massive data rests on no coherent foundation. It should be denied.

Read the Complete Response (August 12, 2021)
6 pages; PDF.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Libraries, News