The Internet Archive (“IA”) began operation in 1996, at first making archival copies of websites, but soon offering those to the public and then expanding to other copyrighted works including books, sound recordings, audiovisual works, graphic arts (still images), and software, without regard to their copyright status and generally without licenses. It positions itself as an online version of a library and has offered free access to the materials it copies, albeit limiting users to one-for-one use of its copies: one copy may only be used by one account at a time….

On March 24, 2020, in response to the closures associated with the coronavirus, IA announced its intention to remove all limits on the number of users who could simultaneously access the copies it possess.⁴It dubbed this decision, its “National Emergency Library” and announced it would operate in this fashion until at least June 30, 2020, even if the U.S. national emergency declaration concludes prior to that date.

Astute readers will quickly wonder about the copyright rights of the authors and publishers of those books and other works.

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