“Koetl also dismissed arguments that the Internet Archive might theoretically have helped publishers sell more copies of their books, saying there was no direct evidence, and that it was “irrelevant” that the Internet Archive had purchased its own copies of the books before making copies for its online audience.”
The Archive bought the books and lent them out, about 70,000 borrows a day. The judge called that irrelevant. Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley and Penguin Random House now get to decide that a library only owns what it rents from them. Buying a book no longer means you can lend it.