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Entertainment

Internet Archive Settles Music Lawsuit Over Great 78 Project

Mollie Dominy photo
By Mollie Dominy · Updated · 2 min read
Individual photographing a stamp collection using a smartphone for cataloging. Internet archive
Image of Individual photographing, Courtesy of Photo By: Kaboompics.com via pexels

You know, for an organization dedicated to preserving the past, the Internet Archive sure finds itself in a lot of modern trouble. Remember that whole book-pocalypse lawsuit with the publishers? Well, they’ve just closed the chapter on another legal drama, this time with some major record labels.

What Was the Big Deal with the Music?

The whole brouhaha started back in 2022. A squad of record labels, including big names like Sony and Universal, dropped the legal hammer on the Internet Archive. Their beef? The “Great 78 Project.”

This was the Archive’s ambitious plan to digitize a massive collection of old 78rpm records. Think tunes from before 1972, stuff your great-grandparents probably jammed to. The goal was noble: preserve these slices of musical history for researchers, academics, and anyone curious enough to listen. The problem, according to the labels, was copyright infringement on a massive scale. They argued the Archive was basically running a pirate radio station with their restored recordings.

The Internet Archive’s Copyright Lawsuit Saga Continues

So, what’s the final score? The Internet Archive has officially settled. As part of the deal, they’ve agreed to block access to the commercial recordings at the heart of the lawsuit. Ouch. While the exact financial terms are being kept under wraps—because of course they are—the Archive’s founder, Brewster Kahle, didn’t seem too thrilled. He called the outcome “not ideal” but admitted it was necessary to end the two-year legal migraine.

This isn’t just a one-off battle, either. It’s part of a larger war over who gets to control digital information.

  • The Book Publishers Lawsuit: The Archive is still appealing a loss against Hachette and other publishers over its emergency library program during the pandemic.
  • The War on Digital Preservation: These lawsuits are basically a full-frontal assault on library-controlled digital collections, with rightsholders wanting to call all the shots.

It’s a classic boss fight: preservationists versus profit-driven publishers and labels. Who will win in the end? Hard to say, but for now, it looks like the Internet Archive is taking another hit for the team. At least they live to fight another day, right?

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