Record label vs. Internet Archive: legal dispute settled, details unclear
After several US music labels sued the Internet Archive for over 600 million US dollars, threatening its existence, a settlement has now been reached.
(Image: Bob Rossicone/Shutterstock.com)
The legal dispute between major US record labels and the Internet Archive has been settled. The US Music Industry Association, the labels and the online library have informed the competent court of this and requested that all applicable deadlines be lifted. As soon as certain conditions of the settlement have been met, a formal motion to dismiss the lawsuit will be filed, which will happen in 45 days at the latest. A blog post on the Internet Archive states that the confidential settlement covers all claims and that no further public comment will be made. Meanwhile, however, it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks with the "Great 78 Project", which was the subject of the dispute.
Digitization of the first generation of records
Under the name "Great 78" project, the Internet Archive wants to digitize hundreds of thousands of records that were pressed in the first half of the 20th century and make them available to the public. Various institutions and individuals have donated the records so that the Internet Archive can put this cultural treasure online. The so-called shellac records were designed for 78 revolutions per minute and are the predecessors of vinyl records. The freely searchable archive now contains more than 200,000 records and more than 400,000 pieces of music, but it is now unclear whether and how it can continue to be offered after the legal dispute has been settled.
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The US music companies went to court in the summer of 2023 and demanded 150,000 US dollars for each retrievable record due to the publication of the old recordings and the associated "mass theft". At the time, a total of 372 million US dollars was at stake. They later increased the number of affected recordings to more than 600 million US dollars. The basis for the lawsuit is a law approved by US President Donald Trump in 2018, which retroactively introduces federal copyright protection for sound recordings made before 1972. The monopoly rights now apply throughout the US for a good 100 years (for recordings up to 1946) and until 2067 (for recordings from 1947 to 1972). The lawsuit has threatened the existence of the Internet Archive as a whole.
There has been much protest against the music industry's actions, including a dramatic appeal in the spring. This stated that the proceedings were not just about music, but about "whether our digital history survives at all". The fragile recordings were "part of a vanishing American culture". In addition, the Internet Archive, which is threatened by this, is an important public service, especially because of the Wayback Machine, which millions use every day to view historical "snapshots" of websites. This allows sources to be checked, disinformation to be countered and accountability to be ensured. The legal attack therefore puts a "critical infrastructure of the internet" at risk.
(mho)
