In Licensing Journal, IP Transactions Attorneys Examine Controlled Digital Lending

The future of controlled digital lending (CDL), the digital equivalent of traditional library lending, is uncertain after the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s judgment in Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, which found Internet Archive liable for copyright infringement for its CDL practices. CDL is a method by which libraries create digital copies of works that they carry in their print collections and then loan such digital copies out to patrons, similar to how they would loan out a print copy.

Proponents of CDL believe that it helps provide better access to a library’s collections, especially for works that are rare or out of print. Copyright holders, such as Hachette Book Group, have asserted that CDL is unauthorized copying of copyrighted works that circumvents the copyright holder’s rights.

In a Licensing Journal article the authors note that following the decision, it is unclear how CDL programs will be able to function going forward (at least in the Second Circuit), which could potentially lead to diminished access to rare and out-of-print texts.

The article was authored by life sciences and intellectual property transactions partner David McIntosh, technology and IP transactions counsel Georgina Jones Suzuki, and IP transactions associate Parv Gondalia.