Google has emerged victorious in an ongoing book-scanning legal battle in the U.S., dealing a blow to authors.
On Thursday, November 14, Google won an 8-year old lawsuit brought against it by authors, who had accused the company of digitally copying over 20 millions books without permission, for an online library.
The federal judge Denny Chin ruled in Google's favor and said that the company's book-scanning project, which makes copies of books sans permission of the authors, does not violate U.S. copyright law.
Per the ruling, Google's limited use of "snippets" of the authors' works makes the digitization "fair use" and is legal under the U.S. copyright law.
"This is a big win for Google, and it blesses other search results that Google displays, such as news or images," said James Grimmelmann, a University of Maryland IP law professor who has followed the case. "It is also a good ruling for libraries and researchers, because the opinion recognizes the public benefit of making books available."
The judge also said that Google's book-scanning project enables books to be sought out via the Internet or the university library searches, which in turn is beneficial for the society as it makes the books more accessible. At the same time, the project maintains "respectful consideration" for authors' rights, per Chin.
"In my view, Google Books provide significant public benefits," says Chin. "Indeed, all society benefits."
According to Chin, Google's book-scanning was "transformative," which basically means that it gave the books a new dimension and would in turn likely boost sales and not reduce them.
Google's search engine provides links where the books are available for purchase or which universities have them at hand.
Even though the decision is in Google's favor, an appeal is expected, and if Google sees it through, it can save the estimated $3 billion it is said to owe the Authors Guild, which demanded $750 for each scanned book.
