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| Flickr CC via Lararnas Nyheter |
A Federal court dismissed a class action suit against tech-giant Google last week involving the publishing industry. The Authors Guild claimed that Google violated
copy right law by providing snippets of material from its digital scan of more
than 20 million books.
The guild was seeking over $700 per piece of copyrighted
material that Google scanned. The law
suit has been active since 2005. The
Author’s Guild has expressed intention to appeal the decision. The judge ruled that even though Google is
using the traffic from Google Books to make money, it is not negatively
impacting the book market. Opponents
disagree.
The court said that a reasonable person could only conclude
that Google is helping the book industry by publishing previews of books and
then directing users to buy a whole copy.
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| Flickr CC via pale side of insomnia |
Google Books allows users to read snippets or pieces of
books for free. Google claims that all
material given to users is either out of copyright protection or the company
has permission from the publisher. The
application also allows users to borrow or buy electronic books from the Google
Play Store.
The Google Books project started in 2002 after several
non-profit projects began digitizing books to record collections of the written
word. By 2004 Google had partnered with
several libraries and universities to digitize over 15 million volumes. Users are able to search for famous literary
passages, pieces of information, and several other options in seeking out the
valuable information in the world’s libraries.
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