Universal Music Group (UMG.AS), Sony Music Entertainment (6758.T), and other record companies have initiated legal action against the nonprofit organization, Internet Archive, for copyright infringement. This lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Manhattan, alleges that the Archive’s “Great 78 Project” serves as an unauthorized digital record store, offering music from vintage records by iconic artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, and Billie Holiday. The labels have specified 2,749 instances of sound-recording copyrights that they claim the Archive has infringed upon, with potential damages estimated to reach as high as $412 million.
The Internet Archive, headquartered in San Francisco, is known for its digital preservation efforts, archiving websites, books, audio recordings, and various materials with the aim of providing universal access to knowledge, akin to a library. The Archive is also facing another federal lawsuit from major book publishers concerning its digital book lending program, which allegedly violates copyright laws. A judge ruled in favor of the publishers in a March decision, a ruling the Archive intends to appeal.
The “Great 78 Project” seeks donations of 78-rpm records, a prominent record format from the early 1900s to the 1950s, to be digitized, ensuring the preservation of cultural materials for future generations. The Archive claims to have a collection of over 400,000 recordings. The labels’ lawsuit asserts that the project includes thousands of recordings protected by copyright, including well-known tracks such as Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” The labels argue that these recordings are already available on authorized streaming platforms and are not at risk of being lost, forgotten, or destroyed.