The Institute for Justice is representing small, on-demand publisher Valancourt Books in a federal lawsuit challenging the US Copyright Office’s deposit demand, which requires providing two free copies of anything copyrightable. Valancourt, which has a list of about 400 reprints of out-of-print titles — “all of which contain at least some new material, like scholarly introductions or footnotes, that is copyrightable” — says it cannot afford to provide the deposit copies, and should have not have to do so for works that exist primarily as digital files. The Institute writes, “You don’t owe the federal government anything just because you […]
