The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) recently filed an amicus brief in support of HathiTrust and its partners as they defend their district court victory on appeal in the Second Circuit. LCA consists of three major library associations - the American Library Association, ARL, and the Association of College and Research Libraries - that collectively represent over 300,000 information professionals and thousands of libraries of all kinds throughout the US and Canada.
In the powerful brief, LCA counsel Jonathan Band explains that the HathiTrust Digital Library's digitization of over 10 million books for preservation, non-consumptive research, and accessibility is lawful. The Digital Library is a research tool and an accessible resource of world-historical significance that the court should welcome.
The brief makes three core arguments - the HathiTrust project is a fair use consistent with library best practices; the specific exceptions favouring libraries do not preempt fair use; and libraries are 'authorised entities' who can make accessible books available to the print disabled under the Chafee Amendment.
In the process, the brief responds to the Authors Guild's reading of the Copyright Act, which would make basic library activities illegal and treat patrons with print disabilites as second-class citizens.
The LCA brief is one of 12 amicus briefs filed this week in support of HathiTrust and its partner libraries.
