[n9]

Specifically of issue in this case -- there is a wide-open hole in the IA's book hosting system that allows anyone to easily download an Adobe Digital Edition of any book in the archive -- ADE's DRM has been broken for a long time. It takes 2 minutes to go from IA to a full OCR'd PDF. The result is that there are a LOT of decrypted PDFs in the wild that carry the Internet Archive logo on the very first page.

I am for DRM because it could enable something like the IA to host and lend books without violating author's privledge. The IA's implementation is foolish and, I think, carries the intent to allow exploitation.

[timschmidt]

In this case, the IA has applied DRM, just as media companies do, and anyone breaking that DRM is the person liable for infringement, not the Internet Archive. Even breaking weak sauce DRM violates the terms of the DMCA, and media companies have fought to protect their use of such insufficient schemes. I see no reason that legal wrangling shouldn't also apply to the Internet Archive as well as it does members of the MPAA.

[tombert]

At least the Adobe Digital Edition is a nominal attempt at controlled lending. It's not a great attempt, but it's something.

The thing that really concerns me is the fact that people are treating IA a general file sharing site. You can find complete sets of ROMs for basically any game system you can think of, TV shows and movies that can be downloaded completely uninhibited, completely DRM-free versions of books.

To some extent data harboring laws will protect them, but that's not a silver bullet; if they're not making an active effort to deal with copyright stuff I really think it's going to bite them, and that's a shame. The IA is an extremely valuable resource when used right.