Authors Guild Sues Google Over Book Scanning

The Authors Guild and several authors filed a class-action suit in federal court against Google, claiming that “the $90 billion search engine and advertising juggernaut is engaging in massive copyright infringement at the expense of the rights of individual writers.” The suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, which asks for class-action status for anyone or any entity with a book under copyright in the University of Michigan, is aimed at the Google Print Library Project, the controversial effort to scan parts or all of certain libraries and place them online for varying degrees of access. (Sample.) A companion program works with publishers. Google temporarily halted the U.S. version last month in response to complaints from the Authors Guild and others, who content the projects infringe on copyrights.
Authors Guild president Nick Taylor describes the library project as ” a plain and brazen violation of copyright law,” adding, “It’s not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied.” Joining the Authors Guild (the largest U.S. organization of published authors) in the suit: Herbert Mitgang, a Lincoln biographer and former New York Times editorial writer; Betty Miles, an author of numerous books for children and young adults; and Daniel Hoffman, author, editor and former Poet Laureate.
In keeping with its Pyhrric policy, Google still refuses to talk to News.com, but gave a statement to the AP: “We regret that this group has chosen litigation to try to stop a program that will make books and the information within them more discoverable to the world.”
Authors Guild press release.

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