Internet Archive’s Settlement with Music Publishers over Great 78 Project Overview A lawsuit brought by major music publishers against the Internet Archive (IA) concerning the Great 78 Project has ended in a confidential settlement. The Great 78 Project involves digitizing and preserving early 20th-century music recordings on fragile shellac records. The settlement includes UMG Recordings, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and other labels. Key Details No financial or other settlement terms have been publicly disclosed. Court filings indicate parties have settled but final dismissal paperwork is due within 45 days. Initially, record labels claimed damages of $400 million, alleging IA’s digitized recordings caused lost streaming revenue. Despite arguments showing low usage and industry expert opinions suggesting damages might be as low as $41,000, the labels increased their claims to $700 million later in the case. Before IA joined the settlement, all parties except IA, its founder Brewster Kahle, and engineer George Blood had agreed to sign. IA confirmed the confidential settlement and stated there will be no further public comments. Context & Implications This lawsuit was a major threat to IA, which aims to preserve millions of recordings for historical and scholarly purposes. Last year, IA lost a related court fight with book publishers in another copyright case, which also resulted in an undisclosed settlement amount. The true cost of these legal battles on IA’s operations and finances is likely to remain unknown. IA alleged that the music publishers added numerous infringing works late in the proceedings to coerce a settlement. Some observers, including university sound collections managers, suggest the litigation was more about opposing IA’s challenge to copyright norms and fair use than actual financial harm. Additional Information The article is authored by Ashley Belanger, Senior Policy Reporter at Ars Technica. It includes a photo credit to picture alliance for an image related to the story. The post has generated 72 comments from readers. Related topics include copyright law, digital preservation, fair use, and the challenges faced by nonprofit digital libraries. --- Summary: After a prolonged legal battle over the digitization of fragile historic recordings, the Internet Archive and major music publishers have reached a confidential settlement. The dispute centered on copyright claims and damages originally claimed at hundreds of millions of dollars but ultimately settled without public disclosure of terms. This settlement follows prior similar litigation involving book publishers and highlights the difficult balance between digital preservation efforts and copyright enforcement.