Certain legal protections permit us to archive the content available on this site:

Title 17, section 108 of the U.S. Code permits libraries and archives to use copyrighted material in specific ways without permission from the copyright holder. This does not replace fair use, which is codified in section 107. Librarians, archivists, and library users can rely on fair use just like everyone else. In fact, in many cases fair use may apply when section 108 does not.

Section 108 permits libraries and archives to:

Make one copy of an item held by a library for interlibrary loan;
Make up to three copies of a damaged, deteriorated, lost, or stolen work for the purpose of replacement. This only applies if a replacement copy is not available at a fair price;
Make up to three copies of an unpublished work held by the library for the purpose of preservation. If the copy is digital, it cannot be circulated outside the library;
Reproduce, distribute, display, or perform a published work that is in its last 20 years of copyright for the purposes of preservation, research, or scholarship if the work is not available at a fair price or subject to commercial exploitation;
Make one copy of an entire work for a user or library who requests it if the work isn’t available at a fair price.

The following restrictions must be observed when appealing to this exception:

It applies only to libraries and archives open to the public, or to unaffiliated researchers in a specialized field (OSU Libraries meets this exception);
Copies cannot be made for commercial purposes;
The copying cannot be systematic (e.g., to replace subscriptions);
All copies made under this exception must include a notice stating that the materials may be protected under copyright.
The current version of section 108 was updated with the passage of the Digital Millennial Copyright Act in 1998