Thirteen Publishers Win Case Against WeLib, Site Ordered Offline
Thirteen publishers have won a court case against WeLib, and the court has ordered the online library's website taken offline. The ruling was issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a United States federal court, according to Publishers Marketplace.
The publishers accused WeLib of copying and distributing their books and articles. WeLib did not respond to the lawsuit, so the court issued a default judgment. That is a ruling entered when one side does not take part in the case, and the other side's claims are accepted as the basis for the decision.
The court ordered WeLib to pay US$19.5 million in damages, money meant to compensate the publishers for harm. WeLib must also destroy all copies of the plaintiffs' works.
The order goes beyond WeLib itself. Domain name registries and providers, the companies that manage web addresses and host websites, were ordered to take the WeLib site offline.
In May, Anna's Archive, another online library, was ordered to pay US$19.5 million in a similar case. The two rulings now share the same damages figure, though they involve different defendants.
For readers who use free online libraries, the case shows how publishers are pursuing the sites that copy their titles. Many people never think about where a free download comes from, or who loses when it is copied. Authors and publishers are paid through book sales, and copying cuts into those sales.
The ruling is a default judgment, so the court has heard only the publishers' side. Whether WeLib or its operators will respond to the order is not yet known.
