The Internet Archive should be exempt from copyright law.

Round 1

A 2023 study found roughly 70 percent of books published between 1923 and 1963 are out of print and commercially unavailable. I'd argue that for those works copyright isn't protecting a market, it's locking culture in a vault. The Internet Archive's exemption isn't about pirating new bestsellers. It's about keeping the historical record readable when no one is selling it and rights holders often can't be found. A copyright system that makes old knowledge disappear isn't serving authors or the public. It's serving oblivion.

RoberRedAGAINST

Imagine a novelist who spends two years writing a book, hoping sales pay the rent. The Internet Archive scans it and lends unlimited digital copies for free. That is not preservation; it is a competing library that pays no licensing fees. If we exempt it from copyright, any nonprofit could do the same at scale, and writers lose the market that makes writing possible. Copyright already allows fair use and limited archiving. A blanket exemption goes too far.