I found the descriptions regarding legal gray areas that The Internet Archive and Google Books went through very revealing of the digital age’s growing pains. The Internet Archive went through a major legal case after quarantine when several large publishers accused Archive for giving out free copies of books under something Archive called “the emergency library”. The emergency library was created for people to continue to access books even though they did not have physical access to their libraries. In the end, The Internet Archive lost the case. This case reflects Google Books when the “Author’s Guild… filed [a] suit in 2005 for copyright infringement… they argued that the library project, which scans numerous copyright–but out-of-print–works, was illegal, and that Google needed to pay royalties for these books” (Borsuk 228). Google argued that their use was “like an author quoting a source… but at the level of the code” (Borsuk 228).

Both of these cases illustrate how distribution manifests itself very differently with e-books. While free distribution of copyrighted books is not allowed, searchable snippets are. The digital age has brought a different way to interact with books that was not possible before. Now, we can distribute a near-infinite number of books of all kinds. We can parse through them with unprecedented detail. Yet, only certain forms of distribution are allowed. In large part, Capitalism plays a role in the logic of distribution legality. The Archive wanted to freely distribute books, Google wanted to make it easier to find snippets of books which the reader would (presumably) eventually buy. I do not want to make any claims of foul play in the decision making process of these cases, however, I will argue that there is a capitalistic ethos at play which seems to almost arbitrarily draw lines on copyright law until one considers the monetary potential of these decisions. In other words, stealing intellectual work only matters when someone can’t make money anymore. It only seems to matter when the entity unable to make money from intellectual work has enough bargaining power to make someone listen. In this case, it is the major publishing companies.

People no longer need to go to the library or scour through multiple books to find the information they need. Knowledge is as far away as a few clicks. The distribution of knowledge is as free as it ever has been, presumably this gives further justification to ideas of meritocracy. Additionally, e-lit can be parsed through for information incredibly quickly in a way that physical books cannot. This rationalizes the modern fetishization of physical books–of book-ishness. E-Lit is for information, physical books are for leisure. In some ways, it is a symbol of class divide. To have time to read is to have time for leisure, to have time for leisure is to be upper-middle class.