However, the Archive also faces enormous legal challenges. In 2024, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling against the Internet Archive in a lawsuit brought by major book publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House. The court found that the Archive's "Free Digital Library," which scanned and lent digital copies of print books without permission, did not qualify as fair use. This ruling set a major precedent, reinforcing that just because something can be scanned and lent online doesn't mean it's legal to do so without a license. While the 2024 case was about books, its logic directly applies to films: modern, copyright-protected works generally cannot be uploaded to the Archive without the copyright holder's permission.
We live in an era dominated by streaming platforms, where access to cinema is dictated by licensing agreements and corporate consolidation. Films and their accompanying bonus features can vanish overnight if a streaming service decides to remove content for tax write-offs or strategy shifts. Physical media, such as Blu-rays and DVDs, face the long-term threat of disc rot and the obsolescence of playback hardware. Securing the Cultural Record rise of the planet of the apes internet archive