Although the Church acknowledges that its sole remaining copy is not the one it originally acquired from All-Ireland Heritage, Inc., it maintains that the remaining copy does not infringe Hotaling’s copyright because it is a replacement copy, authorized by 17 U.S.C. § 108. The Copyright Act does permit libraries to make a replacement copy of a copyrighted work that has been published, but only if the library “has, after a reasonable effort, determined that an unused replacement cannot be obtained at a fair price,” § 108(c), and the library has complied with other pertinent provisions of § 108. Because the district court did not reach this issue, we decline to address it for the first time on appeal.
We turn next to the other copies that the Hotalings contend were distributed within the limitations period. Based on the evidence in the record, a reasonable jury could not conclude that the library distributed the Rhode Island copy to the public. According to the unrebutted affidavit of the Rhode Island library director, the paper copy was made and left behind by a library patron. Although the copy was later found in the library, there is no evidence to show that it was made part of the library’s collection or listed in the library’s catalog file.
Nor is there sufficient evidence to establish that the six copies returned and destroyed in 1993 were held out to the public within the limitations period. The evidence in the record does not reveal where the branch libraries found the six copies or whether those copies had been available for public use.
V
The Church asserts an alternative argument. It contends that, even if the library held an unlawful copy of the Hotaling works in its collection during the limitations period, any claim related to that copy accrued more than three years before this suit was filed in August, 1995. The Church points out that Donna Hotaling knew the libraries were adding the unlawful copies to their collections in 1991. With regard to the copy held in the main library’s collection, the Church asserts that Donna Hotaling has known for several years that that copy, which had been made by the Church, was maintained in the library’s collection as a replacement for the one it had purchased. In Donna Hotaling’s deposition, she states that she was aware of the main library’s replacement copy before 1992. Therefore, says the Church, the Hotalings action accrued prior to 1992, and the statute of limitations bars the 1995 suit.
The Church’s argument is unpersuasive. “Each act of infringement is a distinct harm giving rise to an independent claim for relief.” Stone v. Williams, 970 F.2d at 1049. As we decided in Part III, distribution occurs, within the meaning of § 106, when a library holds a copy in its collection, lists the copy in its card file, and makes the copy available to the public. In this respect, the Church distributed the Hotaling microfiche as late as 1995. As we explained in Part II, a copyright holder may recover for infringements that occurred within three years before suit was filed, even if earlier claims were not pursued. Roley, 19 F.3d at 481. For this reason, the statute of limitations does not present a bar to the Hotalings’ remaining claim.
Moreover, even if we were to accept the Church’s argument, it would not change the outcome. If, as the Church says, actual use by the public must be shown to establish distribution, no one can expect a copyright holder to prove particular instances of use by the public when the proof is impossible to produce because the infringing library has not kept records of public use. To reiterate, a copyright holder should not be prejudiced in this manner, nor should an infringer benefit from its failure to keep records. In this case, the Church’s library did not record instances of public use of the Hotaling microfiche.
VI
The Hotalings presented evidence that suggests the Church distributed at its main library one potentially infringing copy of the Hotaling works to the public within the limitations period. For that reason, dismissal of
