Record labels sue The Internet Archive for vinyl record archiving project

Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and several other record labels have subpoenaed The Internet Archive. The companies claim that the non-profit organization is infringing copyrights on music tracks through The Great 78 Project and are therefore seeking damages.

Universal Music Group, Capitol Records, Concord Bicycle Assets, CMGI Recorded Music Assets, Sony Music Entertainment and Arista Music believe The Internet Archive’s The Great 78 Project serves as an ‘illegal store’ for songs by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella, among others Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Billie Holiday. The Great 78 Project is an archiving project of The Internet Archive. Through the project, the non-profit organization wants to digitize 78 rpm records from the period 1898 to 1950. More than 400,000 such records are currently said to have been digitized. According to The Internet Archive, the intention is not to remaster or polish the original recordings, but to preserve and present them as ‘historical objects’.

The record labels see it differently. In the summons they write that the project is an illegal attempt to ‘deliberately circumvent’ copyright and that ‘on an enormous scale’. The companies believe that the music is still available via streaming services and therefore there is no risk that the recordings will be lost, forgotten or destroyed. The Internet Archive would according to Reuters have violated copyrights in 2,749 cases and, according to the record labels, the damages suffered could amount to approximately $412 million.

Illustration The Great 78 Project