Authors Guild, AAP Outraged by IA's 'National Emergency Library' - Publishers Weekly

Today as Panzer entered the Catosphere his poor kitty ears were assaulted by a cacophony of crying, shouting and teeth gnashing. Following all the chaos, took our brave kitty boy to the Publishers Weekly site. With a little digging in the posts he discovered one about the Internet Archive.

I want to start my own library.

According to Andrew Albanese, the Internet Archive (IA) has declared itself a 'National Emergency Library.' Under this self-declared emergency the company has set up its Open Library as a repository of thousands of unauthorized copies of ebooks. IA is scanning paperback and hardback books and turning them into digital books. The company then makes the books available through their Open Library for download by anyone. The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the National Writers' Union (NWU) have all protested the copying and dispensing of authors' and publishers' books without permission or payment as copyright infringement. Despite these protests the Internet Archive continues the practice. There are several links in the post, including one to a post by the Internet Archive explaining why they can say they are a library and why it's okay to digitize a book without permission or payment.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... I need to see if any of my books are there."

Note: This is a long post. Bring a cup of tea and a cup of cocoa and two muffins for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to Authors Guild

The Writers' Union of Canada Condemns The Internet Archive's Pirate Site, "The Open Library" - The Digital Reader

Panzer's nap this afternoon was interrupted when he was shaken from his kitty bed by crying and howling coming from the Catosphere. Hopping into the Panzermobile, he went to see what all the hullabaloo was about. Following the noise took him to The Digital Reader site where he found a post about the Writers' Union of Canada.

Is there a way to shut these guys down?

Site owner Nate Hoffelder's post says the Writers' Union of Canada has joined the Authors Guild of the U.S. and the Society of Authors of the U.K. in condemning the Internet Archive's "The Open Library" site for its copyright infringement practices. The Internet Archive scans books and uses its "The Open Library" site to dispense those books to readers for free. Neither the Internet Archive nor "The Open Library" are responding to authors' demands to stop dispensing their books and remove them from the sites. There are several links included in the post.

Panzer says, "There are a lot of these pirate sites around. The Internet Archive's "The Open Library" just does it right in front of everybody. They want everybody to know they're pirates, because then the people who want to steal books know where to go."

Note: This is a long post. Bring a cup of tea and a muffin for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to Writers' Union of Canada

To read Panzer's previous post about the Internet Archive's "The Open Library"  tootle over to Authors Guild and Society of Authors