News
Authors Guild Case Against Google Books' Library Project Dismissed
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin granted Google's motion for summary judgment on November 14, thus dismissing the case raised by the Authors Guild against the company's Google Books Library Project. Judge Chin's decision found that while Google is creating a searchable database by scanning books from libraries without the copyright owners' permission and profiting from said database, the project serves a significant educational purpose and enhances the copyrighted works' value. Judge Chin also found that the database helps promote the works and their sales and that Google's scanned copies are impossible to use to create full copies or for reading.
The Google Books Library Project aims to "create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages," and has partnered with public and university libraries to do so. The project was announced as early as 2004.
Kadokawa Group Holdings announced last year that it has made an agreement with Google to exclude all of its publications from being digitized and added to the Google Books Library Project. Kadokawa noted that because of issues raised by other authors and industry personnel, and after negotiations with Google, it decided to apply to exclude all of its works from the project.
[Via Slashdot]
