US Court Dismisses Copyright Lawsuit Against Google Books Project

Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York today dismissed the copyright violation lawsuit that US author groups had launched against  Google.

The search giant has been digitizing millions of books to create a massive online library / bookstore but the project was opposed in a lawsuit by US publishers and author organizations dating back to 2005. The publishers' group split off and settled earlier.

The judge wrote that the project respects authors' rights and is a case of "fair use" (equivalent to fair dealing in Canadian copyright law):

"It preserves books, in particular out-of-print and old books that have been forgotten in the bowels of libraries, and it gives them new life. It facilitates access to books for print-disabled and remote or underserved populations. It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers. Indeed, all society benefits."

The Infodocket website has full coverage and reaction from parties and observers. It also includes a full-text of the court decision.

Earlier Library Boy posts about the Google Book controversy include:

• Google Settles Lawsuit With U.S. Authors and Publishers (October 28, 2008)
• Google Book Scanning Project Settlement: More Reaction and Analysis (February 23, 2009)
• Association of American Publishers on Recent Google Book Project Settlement (February 24, 2009)
• Controversy Heats Up Over Google Book Search Settlement (August 24, 2009)
• American Library Associations Publish Summary of Google Books Litigation Court Filings (October 6, 2009)
• American Library Association Website on Google Book Settlement (October 26, 2009)
• Guide to the Amended Google Book Settlement(November 30, 2009)
• Canadian Authors Launch Petition Against Google Book Settlement (January 5, 2010)
• Coverage of Last Week's Google Books Settlement NYC Court Hearing (February 22, 2010)
• Roundup of Commentary on Rejected Google Book Settlement (March 26, 2011)
• Update to Google Books Bibliography (August 29, 2011)
• Three Years of the Google Book Settlement (July 23, 2012): "Walt Crawford devotes the entire August 2012 issue of his Cites & Insights publication to what happened to the proposed Google Book Settlement (...) Some of the topics Crawford covers include monopoly and antitrust; privacy and confidentiality; the public domain, open access, copyright; libraries and metadata; authors and publishers."