Internet Archive is at risk of being blocked by ISPs

Problems of piracy (!) And the Internet Archive… An anti-piracy team representing copyright invites ISPs to block our well-known Internet Archive service in Russia.

Two lawsuits were filed concerning two audio books. The lawsuits seek to block the popular Archive.org site permanently in Russia.

The Internet Archive (Internet Archive at domain archive.org) is one non-profit library containing millions of free books, movies, software and music.

It was founded in 1996, and is considered one of the most important services on the entire Internet, just for the Wayback Machine, which provides a history of almost all the pages that have been published on the Internet.

Like all platforms of this type, the Internet Archive contains copyrighted files, some of which are presented without the necessary permission from the copyright holders.

The platform has occasionally stated that it has some reservations about the DMCA, but recognizes that the provisions for each 'safe harbor' are vital to the existence of libraries such as those at Archive.org.

The Internet Archive is required to comply with DMCA deletion requests, but in Russia, where the site has millions of visitors, things do not seem to be going well.

The problems were started by the Internet Copyright Protection Association (AZAPI or Internet Copyright Protection Association), an anti-piracy group that partially represents copyright.

According to AZAPI, Archive.org has two audiobooks - Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 and Daria Dontsova's Third Eye Diamond - without the necessary permission from the copyright holders. It is not known if AZAPI filed simple revocation notices, but the matter was eventually taken to court.

The Roskomsvoboda Digital Rights Group he says that on 13 May 2019 the Moscow Court initially examined the Metro 2033 case and ruled in favor of AZAPI.

Shortly afterwards, it issued an order preventing the Internet Archive (Archive.org) from distributing the book.
According to Roskomsvoboda, whose lawyers now represent the Internet Archive, the digital library did not attend the initial hearing and was not informed of the outcome. An appeal was therefore lodged against the decision.

On August 16, AZAPI struck again, urging all Internet service providers in Russia to block the Internet Archive (Archive.org). However, the case did not proceed because AZAPI could not prove that the company behind the audiobook has the copyright.

So another hearing is pending in mid-September.

Of course, no one knows whether the Moscow court will decide to permanently block the Internet Archive in Russia. For the record, the same court has blocked other major platforms such as Sci-Hub.