Libraries are at risk!

Today, I want to spotlight the Internet Archive and its fight for the libraries' right for digital lending, something that is at risk right now. In a nutshell, as the Fight for the Future's page on the situation says, major publishers don't allow libraries to purchase permanent digital copies of their books - the given only option being renting the digital copies for high fees, meaning that things like censorship are veritable risks - forcing libraries to instead scan physical books so they can be loaned digitally while the physical copy is kept in storage and the digital copy's loaning is limited to just one file per book - a practice known as Controlled Digital Lending. The nonprofit Internet Archive and more traditional libraries like the Boston Public Library preserve their books digitally this way. The publishers sued the Internet Archive for doing this and on March 24th, a lower court judge ruled in the publishers' favor, which puts not just the Internet Archive but libraries like the aforementioned Boston Public Library at risk as well.