On the Seine, cycling to work on March 22. Image – Getty, Olivier DiJann
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
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The Internet Archive Takes Another Blow in Court on Copyright
‘To Defend the Interests of an Entire Profession’
The French publishers’ association—the Syndicat national de l’édition—is messaging the news media that the Paris Judicial Court has today (September 12) ordered Internet service providers to block the “Z-Library” site.
The order renders a total 98 domain names and their possible extensions on mirror sites inaccessible.
Not unlike recent court actions led by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in the States with a cohort of prominent publishing houses, the French association initiated the proceedings against Z-Library with the support of twelve key publishing houses:
- Actes Sud
- Albin Michel
- Cairn
- Editis
- Hachette Livre
- Humensis
- Lefebvre-Sarrut,
- LexisNexis
- Madrigall
- Maison des Langues
- Odile Jacob
- Presses de Science Po
A first blocking decision, the publishers remind us, was issued in the latter part of 2022.
“This had already made it possible to very significantly limit the possibilities of accessing Z-Library from France,” the SNE says in its discussion. This had provided protection to “millions of books and copyrighted articles pirated by this site—all publishing sectors combined.”
Understandably chuffed by its success, the association says that it “continues to deploy its strategy against pirate sites, regardless of their size, the complexity of their organization, or their desire to maintain, or even expand, their audience to the detriment of the development of a legal offer.”
Actions against other target sites,” the association leadership says, “are currently under consideration and should give rise to new blocking decisions, on the same basis of a so-called ‘cessation action.’”
One thing going for the publishers, the association says, is that they have, as a community, become newly attentive to “developments in our law in favor of the fight against piracy.” The publishers recommend the assistance of the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique, or ARCOM, which is responsible for regulating audiovisual and digital media in France.
Among ARCOM’s portfolio points are rights, freedoms, “social cohesion,” and the protection of rights. That includes ensuring that service providers “adhere to rules and commitments
ARCOM’s mission is to ensure that service providers adhere to rules and commitments. The SNE today, then, is recommending ARCOM’s support for professional organizations, especially in getting court blocking orders extended to all potentially compromised domain names that could be used to access one or more infringing sites.
“French publishing invests massively to allow broad public access to digital books,” the SNE writes. “Book piracy undermines the remuneration of creators: authors and publishers. It constitutes a threat to the entire book ecosystem, particularly booksellers, and harms cultural diversity.
“The fight against book piracy,” the SNE’s statement today says, “is more than ever a priority for publishers and the SNE in its mission to defend the interests of an entire profession.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on the French market is here, more from us on bookselling is here, more on digital publishing is here, more on copyright issues is here, and more on book piracy is here.
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