Statement + photos on ruling in Hachette v Internet Archive: this can’t stand

Photos and videos from recent author and activist actions in support of the Internet Archive can be found here, and press outlets are welcome to use them: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jae8vHU5dks9nXu1pPzt_p2qUNMBovfq?usp=sharing

The following statement can be attributed to Lia Holland (they/she), Campaigns and Communications Director at Fight for the Future, a queer women and artist led human rights organization:

“From saving the entirety of MTV News to archiving the digital record of each presidential administration, the nonprofit Internet Archive is providing invaluable service to humanity by offering everyone around the world equitable and surveillance-free access to preserved knowledge and history. While we’re still analyzing the ruling, we are profoundly disappointed that libraries, diverse authors, and the readers who love them have suffered such a myopic and dangerous blow from a federal court today. With more people than ever before opting to read digitally, the Internet Archive has been fighting a very important battle for the future of reading against some of the world’s most powerful corporations. Big Tech’s greed has infected Big Publishing, causing them to abandon the concept of ownership for digital books, and to force all libraries and readers to buy licenses that lock them into spyware-ridden apps that turn data on readers into a new product for publishing. 

Make no mistake, this suit is about taking away the right to own popular book formats and the right to be safe reading them. A queer person who isn’t out to their family, someone seeking an abortion, Black youth wanting to learn about movements for justice, or a mom looking for gender-affirming care for her kid are all placed under greater threat when what they read, who they are, where they live, and more sensitive personal data is gobbled up by Big Publishing and Big Tech. Such data can be sold on to the data brokers that fuel vigilantes and extortionist scammers, be subpoenaed by state attorney generals looking for a ready-made list of people to investigate and prosecute, or used by racist, bigoted algorithms to assess the so-called risk of offering someone a lease or a bank account. People know that apps are spying on them. Now, they’re going to be more cautious than ever in even picking up a diverse book, or one on a topic that they might face consequences for reading down the road. With libraries being such a major purchaser of diverse books, this spying bodes poorly for the future of diverse perspectives in publishing.

By scanning and loaning the print books they own, the Internet Archive maintained the only meaningful digital reading alternative to this system of surveillance, and hope for a future where libraries might build alternatives that center the privacy needs of their patrons and the literary community at large. Now, 500,000+ books that the Internet Archive offered are gone. Libraries used to defend and celebrate reader privacy, but with publishers forcing expensive digital book licenses on them and now this decision, it looks like they simply can’t anymore. It’s a sad day for book people, particularly for disabled, rural, and low income readers who rely on libraries, and all those who want to write without the threat of erasure or read without the fear of surveillance and punishment, including 25+ civil and human rights organizations like GLAAD, Color of Change, and Presente.org.

Further, it’s absurd to think that a library or a used bookstore or a reader with a shelf full of print books might need permission from a publisher to loan or sell their property—and yet that is the world this decision moves us toward. One where ownership of books no longer exists and book banners putting the pressure on can force publishers to revoke access to, edit, or delete every copy of a digital book with no transparency. We can’t let this decision threaten the vital records of our time that are held in digital books, or threaten the future of libraries. No one wants a world where libraries are just some Netflix spewing out whatever content Big Publishing and Big Tech allow them to temporarily license. In the wake of this decision, we’re going to strengthen our fight for state and federal legislation to restore libraries’ and readers’ rights to own, preserve, and access all books, regardless of what format they’re published in or who might want to censor them.

With information on the Internet less trustworthy than ever and book bans sweeping the nation, we need real and equitable sources of accurate information now more than ever. Namely, we need empowered libraries and empowered librarians more than ever. Instead, we’re getting the opposite, and that can’t stand.”