**Summary: The Internet Archive’s Trillionth Webpage Comes Amid Legal Battles and Uncertain Future for Libraries**
This month, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine marked a historic milestone by archiving its trillionth webpage—a feat celebrated with fanfare by its 1,200 library partners, 800,000 daily users, and even the city of San Francisco, which declared October 22 “Internet Archive Day.” The nonprofit also received federal recognition as a depository library, praised by Senator Alex Padilla for expanding access to government publications in an increasingly digital world.
Yet beneath the celebration lies a sobering reality: the Internet Archive (IA), founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, has just emerged from years of bruising copyright litigation that nearly destroyed one of its most beloved projects, the Open Library. While the organization remains operational and currently faces no major lawsuits, the legal battles forced the removal of over half a million books from its digital shelves, a loss Kahle described starkly: “We survived, but it wiped out the Library.”
**A Three-Decade Mission Under Threat**
Kahle’s vision for the Internet Archive has always been ambitious—to build a digital Library of Alexandria, but “with a better fire protection plan.” Since the launch of the Wayback Machine in 2001, which captures snapshots of the ever-changing web, the Archive has become a vital resource for researchers, students, historians, and the general public. Law professor Lawrence Lessig, an early supporter, argued that the Archive was “defining the public domain” and making visible the stakes involved in digital copyright battles.
The Archive’s troubles began in earnest when it expanded from web archiving into lending digitized books. For years, IA’s “controlled digital lending” model—loaning out one digital copy for each physical book owned—avoided legal scrutiny. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, with libraries shuttered, IA temporarily lifted lending restrictions to create the “National Emergency Library,” making 1.4 million e-books available for unlimited lending. This well-intentioned move prompted lawsuits from major publishers, who argued the Open Library undermined the e-book market and bypassed licensing fees.
**Legal Defeats and Costly Settlements**
The ensuing litigation dragged on for years, culminating in 2024 when the IA lost its final appeal. Damages could have reached $400 million, but a confidential settlement was reached that spared the Archive from bankruptcy. Another lawsuit followed over the Great 78 Project, which digitized hundreds of thousands of historical music recordings; this too ended in a confidential settlement after publishers sought damages of up to $700 million.
Copyright experts and library supporters expressed relief that the Archive survived, but the impact was severe: IA can no longer operate its Open Library project in the way it once did. Kahle and others warn this loss is not just about access to bestsellers but about undermining libraries’ ability to provide broad, equitable access to knowledge