From what I understand, they broke the terms of a legally-binding contract with the publishers. They were allowed to act as a “digital library” — and lend out

From what I understand, they broke the terms of a legally-binding contract with the publishers. They were allowed to act as a “digital library” — and lend out copyrighted works for free — but only one “copy” of the file could be released at a time. This makes more sense for real-world libraries (where books are physical objects with manufacturing costs) but this doesn’t really translate to digital files. During the pandemic, when real-world libraries were shut, the Internet Archive took it upon themselves to give away an unlimited number of copyrighted works. Libraries are a net public good to society, and unexpectedly we found ourselves without them. The Internet Archive was uniquely positioned to share knowledge and educational materials with the world, free of charge, at a time when many people had no other access to them.