Musicians want music labels to drop their lawsuit against the Internet Archive

Singers Tegan & Sara, Open Mike Eagle, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and more produced by Fight for the Future who want the music to play stops an online and non-profit library best known as the Wayback Machine.

“We, the undersigned musicians, wholeheartedly oppose the serious tape charges involving the Internet Archive,” they read. “We do not believe that the Internet Archive should be destroyed in our name.” Instead, the letter offers three other ways in which the lives of musicians can be improved: By partnering with organizations such as the Internet Archive to preserve original recordings and music culture, allowing musicians to keep 100 percent of sales and ending dynamic businesses in advertising channels like. Spotify.

The advent of advertising services had already made being a singer unprofitable, but as the letter says, things like and has made it impossible to do without some additional cost.

The original lawsuit filed by labels like Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group was aimed at the Internet Archive’s. which aims to store music recorded on 78 RPM records. The service has over 400,000 downloadable recordings, including songs by legendary artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. If the records win their case, the Internet Archive could be at risk of up to $621 million in damages for the music played in the Archive since 2006, .

Music is not the only area where the Internet Archive is struggling. Organization recently in the ongoing case with the publisher . The Internet Archive says its digital library can rent eBooks under the fair use doctrine, but several judges disagreed.