First, I think the legal analysis behind Controlled Digital Lending has a fundamential flaw in the creation of a digital copy and I have serious doubts that it

First, I think the legal analysis behind Controlled Digital Lending has a fundamential flaw in the creation of a digital copy and I have serious doubts that it would hold up for commerically published fiction. Having worked in publishing I strongly suspect that publishers didn't care to deal with some minor violations which is why they didn't go to court over it. Second, even if Controlled Digital Lending is permited what they did is so far beyond that. And they did it with widely avaialble commerical works making fair use arguments of access, academic use etc. non viable. The internet archive has an important mission, and they may have put that in jeopardy in order to let people get free copies of books that anyone can get from their local library (maybe going on a wait list) or just buy outright for under $10.