TechCrunch Minute: Another blow to the Internet Archive’s lending library

The Internet Archive’s online lending library recently suffered a big defeat in court.

The organization is best known for operating the Wayback Machine, which stores old versions of web pages, a task that’s felt increasingly important as more of the web disappears. But the Archive also operated a digital lending library, called the Open Library, where it bought physical copies of books, scanned them, then lent them out.

It was supposed to operate similarly to a library of physical books, with only one digital copy lent out for each print copy that the organization purchased. During the pandemic, however, those lending limits were removed, so the library could in theory lend free copies to every single person who wanted to read a book.

Publishers then sued the Internet Archive and won last year. The Archive subsequently appealed the decision, with an appeals court recently siding once again with the publishers.

On today’s TechCrunch Minute, we discuss the pros and cons of the Open Library.