It's not lambasting to communicate what happened. IA got a C&D, refused to comply, and got sued for copyright infringement. The courts sided with the publishers when IA tried to claim it was fair use (technologists seem to have a pattern of stretching the definition of fair use). They've put their entire project at risk because they've repeatedly ignored the law here. That's just what happened.
And what they actually did is violate the requirement to have a physical copy of the book they were lending.
As I understand it, they did not offer anything new that wasn't available to loan prior.
I could be wrong. But if I'm not, I see no reason to lambast IA.