The Internet Archive's Open Library project is still adjusting to a smaller digital lending catalog following a 2024 appeals court ruling that its "controlled digital lending" model does not qualify as fair use under U.S. copyright law. The decision, in Hachette Book Group v. Internet Archive, sided with four major publishers who argued the practice harmed ebook sales.
According to reporting from KQED, the Archive removed more than 500,000 titles from open lending following the initial ruling and has continued defending the broader legal question since. The organization has maintained that its model mirrors how physical libraries lend owned copies, one reader at a time, and has pointed to a public petition supporting restoration of the removed titles.
Legal analysts at Copyright Lately have noted the ruling was decisive, with the court rejecting nearly all of the Archive's fair-use arguments as they applied to books that are otherwise commercially available as ebooks. The decision leaves the Wayback Machine and other Internet Archive services unaffected, since the case was specific to book lending.
For readers who relied on Open Library for out-of-print or hard-to-find titles, public library apps such as Libby and hoopla remain the more consistent free alternative for current, in-print titles — see our Libby setup guide for details.
Sources: KQED, Copyright Lately.