The National Emergency Library is offering free ebooks — but is it lending or piracy?

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Author: Adi Robertson

National Emergency Library, Internet Archive

Last week, the Internet Archive launched a “National Emergency Library” offering access to 1.4 million free books during the coronavirus pandemic. The library aims to serve people who can’t access a normal classroom or public library, and it’s open worldwide until June 30th or whenever the US ends its national emergency. But it’s raised questions about whether the Internet Archive’s trove of books is legal — and whether it hurts writers.

The Emergency Library is an expansion of the Open Libraries initiative, where the Internet Archive worked with libraries to scan their books. For nearly a decade, it’s let people “check out” books through a waiting list, making them available in the same quantities as their hard-copy counterparts. As the...

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