Statement on settlement of suit against Internet Archive’s Great 78s preservation project

The following statement on the settlement of major labels’ suit against the nonprofit Internet Archive can be attributed to Lia Holland (they/she), Campaigns and Communications Director at Fight for the Future:

After half a decade of attacks from the copyright-trolling content industry against one of the Internet’s most beloved institutions of knowledge and preservation, it’s good to at least see that the Internet Archive won’t be destroyed by these greedy and vindictive gatekeepers. The Great 78s Project wasn’t hurting anyone—and at a time of record music industry profits despite falling and failing incomes for most working artists, the Internet Archive certainly wasn’t the cause of even successful musicians being unable to tour or make rent.

Simply put, music industry shareholders are looking for scapegoats wherever they can find them, and they thought attacking the Internet Archive would be an easy way to hide their unfair and extractive practices from working musicians. That didn’t go so well, when hundreds of musicians penned a letter last winter asking major labels to drop their suit against Internet Archive and the mouthpieces for big content didn’t have a leg left to stand on in terms of public perception.

Whether it’s books or music or any other medium, artists want their work to be available to those who aren’t able to buy it, and to be preserved for future generations to study and celebrate. That’s what the Internet Archive is doing and has done, and we look forward to a future where these broadly held values are more central to art culture and nonprofits can no longer be sued for doing good things.