Google Wins Major Book Fight




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.

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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