@fight @internetarchive

As an author I may be biased. I was not happy when I found the Internet Archive posted a digital version of my book, which never had a digital version to provide me royalties. They scraped somebody's pirate digital copy off a website or unprotected ftp site. I am preparing to publish a modernized edition commercially, which makes it somewhat problematic there was a free version.

Libraries need to buy the books they loan, and this instance proves the Internet Archive didn't do that. They did not have a physical copy of my book. How often does this thing happen? Excuse their oversight by citing budgets if you like, but the default wasn't "don't loan" but let the copyright owner (in this case the poor author) request a takedown. Asking forgiveness instead of permission leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you are the little guy. FYI: Copyrights revert to the author X years after the corporation the licensed it.

By definition, the Internet Archive scrapes freely available (unguarded) copies of everything. It's what they do. Regular libraries do not do this.

I suspect the truth lies between great idea and careless execution. I admit they quickly removed access to the book, and I gave them credit when I reported this on Mastodon.

I acknowledge that the Internet Archive is an important service. I don't want to see it gone. But to the extent the solution comes out of the hide of authors, almost all of whom are struggling authors, leaves me ambivalent and discontent.

#internetarchive #writingCommunity #writersOfMastodon