Surprise Ruling on Fair Use Favors Google in Scanning Project
November 27, 2013
The article Google Gets Total Victory Over Authors Guild: Book Scanning Is Fair Use on TechDirt celebrates the decision that Google’s scanning project was fair use. Judge Denny Chin made the decision that Google Books was transformative, “opening up new fields of research.” The decision also revolved around the point that the digitized books were not replacing traditional books.
The article explains:
“Google does not sell its scans, and the scans do not replace the books. While partner libraries have the ability to download a scan of a book from their collections, they owned the books already — they provided the original book to Google to scan. Nor is it likely that someone would take the time and energy to input countless searches to try and get enough snippets to comprise an entire book.”
Furthermore, any individual who made such an attempt would actually need a hard copy of the book anyway since some sections are blacklisted. The ruling also looked at the opportunities available through the technology, like preserving texts, allowing for more comprehensive research and enabling access to more people. The article is particularly hard on The Author’s Guild leader Scott Turow, who was foolish enough to try and fight Google.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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One Response to “Surprise Ruling on Fair Use Favors Google in Scanning Project”
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Surprising is only one word for this turn-about.
Judge Chin and the court did indeed find Google infringed under the law…it’s in the court record. He asked that Google settle…then denied the settlement…then the publishers made their own settlement…leaving authors to fend for themselves.
I any individual did the same thing, and used a book for their own commercial purposes, it would be the publishers and lawyers trying shut that person or small company down…why does Google get away with breaking the law…and having the judge reverse himself! Did Google pay Judge Chin?
Granted Libraries were, along with EFF encouraging this result. Yet as soon as my book was on Google…sales stopped. Why would that be? Because people could get the little bit of information they needed without going to a library to look up or Interlibrary loan this reference book…that’s why.
It’s a total disregard of the law as it stands. Congress is the only one who can change the law, but Judge Chin just did!