We hope many more libraries start controlled digital lending of their books as this is a way to bring public access to the purchases and collections they have built over centuries.
We have recently made available a small number of books (currently 61 books) published between 1923 and 1941 under a provision of US Copyright law that was written to permit libraries to copy and lend titles that are no longer subject to commercial exploitation, and selection is currently overseen by lawyers expert in US copyright law.
As a completely separate service from buying buy sales lead ebooks and loaning to users with controlled digital lending, the Internet Archive offers free hosting for cultural works (texts, audio, moving images) that are uploaded by the general public. cases, and digitized books from other projects such as the Google book program and the Digital Library of India have been uploaded over the years.
When a rights holder wants a work that was uploaded by a user taken down, a well known “Notice and Takedown” procedure is in place. The Internet Archive takes prompt action and follows the procedure, generally resulting in the work being taken down.
Where is this all going? We are looking for partners and ideas to help bring more books to more people in more ways. More books (and more accessible books) for the print disabled, complete collections of books from the 20th century online and available, clickable footnotes for books cited in Wikipedia to bring up the full text on the right page, and many more books in bookstores and libraries.