[Stephen Beemsterboer] Abstract: For more than a decade, the Internet Archive has been collecting and digitizing books as part of its “Open Library” project. The unofficial e-books are made available to the public under a legally untested concept called “controlled digital lending” (CDL), premised on the notion that libraries should be able to lend their books online in much the same way that they do in person. Under the theory, a library may grant restricted digital access to one patron at a time per physically held copy of a book. Once a patron’s access to the book ends, another’s may begin. The process is meant to digitally replicate a physical library loan, and it works just like borrowing an official e-book through a local library.