Brewster Kahle—Brewster Kahle and his personal Kahle/Austin Foundation named as defendants in $400M music industry copyright lawsuit over Great 78 Project
In August 2023, major record labels including Sony and Universal Music Group sued over the Great 78 Project, which digitized and distributed out-of-print 78rpm records. The lawsuit, seeking up to $400 million in damages, named Brewster Kahle personally and his personal Kahle/Austin Foundation as defendants alongside the Internet Archive and audio engineer George Blood, distinguishing Kahle's personal financial and legal exposure from the organization's. Labels alleged the project exceeded fair-use/preservation purposes and functioned commercially to drive donor traffic; Kahle publicly defended the project as legitimate library preservation work.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intellectual Property Ethics | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.590 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Record labels sue Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle personally, and Kahle/Austin Foundation for up to $400M over Great 78 Project
Ars Technica and Billboard reported that Sony, Universal Music Group and other major labels filed suit against the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle individually, his personal Kahle/Austin Foundation, and audio engineer George Blood, alleging mass copyright infringement via the Great 78 Project and seeking up to $400 million in statutory damages.