The Internet Archive lost a major legal battle against the Next-to-Leading Eleven of the National Library of Digital Books (NEL)

The Internet Archive has lost a major legal battle—in a decision that could have a significant impact on the future of internet history. The Internet Archive had its case in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld, after a ruling in Hachette v. Internet Archive.

The NEL was an offshoot of an ongoing digital lending project called the Open Library, in which the Internet Archive scans physical copies of library books and lets people check out the digital copies as though they’re regular reading material instead of ebooks. The Open Library lent the books to one person at a time—but the NEL removed this ratio rule, instead letting large numbers of people borrow each scanned book at once.

James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and internet law at Cornell University, says the verdict is unsurprising in the context of how courts have recently interpreted fair use.