The Internet Archive had long offered an Open Library, which contains a massive number of scanned books that can be checked out online by users one at a time. In response to the pandemic, it temporarily lifted limits on the number of scanned copies available for checkout as well as the length of time a given book could be checked out, temporarily becoming a “National Emergency Library.” That practice is now the subject of legal action. More symbolically, a loss for the archive here would mean yet another blow to the techno-optimistic, quasi-libertarian vision that governed the web’s early years: virtual spaces free from elite control and disruption, an online society based on sharing and discourse over profit.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/09/internet-archive-national-emergency-library-lawsuit.html
