Authors Fail in Legal Challenge to Google Books

The Supreme Court has rejected claims by authors that Google Books violates copyright. It ends a legal battle dating back 12 years.

The legal issues originally centered on Google Library, in which the company scanned millions of books that were no longer being published and made them available in full.

Later on Google used the same technology to scan books that are in print and add them to its search database alongside web pages and other forms of information. When users carry out a search that matches content in a scanned book, they can now see the relevant section as part of the search results.

2013 Settlement Survives Final Challenge

In 2008 the original legal challenge from authors and publishers led to proposed settlements from both sides and lengthy negotiations. Eventually an appeals court ruled in 2013 to force all involved to accept the most recent settlement agreed by Google. (Source: consumerist.com)

The Authors Guild chose to pursue the case through further appeals, all of which ruled in favor of Google. Its last move was to the Supreme Court, but justices there have rejected the case out of hand.

The authors group says that not only does using content from books without permission inherently violate copyright, but that the existence of Google Books is unfairly costing them sales.

Google: No Substitute For Buying Book

Google's argument, upheld by the courts in previous cases, is that it only makes short sections of the books available to searchers, usually covering the pages immediately before and after where the relevant search terms is included. It says this isn't a substitute for buying and reading the full book.

The Authors Guild had complained that it was possible for users to see large parts of a book, either if a search term appeared frequently, or if they searched for a variety of terms. However, the appeals court estimated that even a determined searcher would only ever be able to read around one-sixth of a book. (Source: brandonsun.com)

The judges in that case noted it was possible that somebody who just wanted to check a fact might be able to find it through the Google Books extract and thus no longer need to buy the book. However, they ruled this wasn't enough to tip the balance of fair use vs copyright protection.

What's Your Opinion?

Should Google have the right to scan and use copyrighted books in this way? Does it do enough to avoid using the text unfairly? Have you ever been deterred from buying a book because you could get the information you needed via Google Books?