Google has won again. The highly contentious issue of Google Books and its supposed violation of copyright laws was closed by The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The lawsuit by Authors Guild alleged that Google Books, which scanned tens of millions of books into digital format, abused the legal "fair use" of copyright laws. "Fair use" governs how much written content can be copied before being considered copyright infringement.
Results from Google searches would turn up not just relevant books, but actual "snippets" of the books. These "snippets" are scanned pages of the physical books and contain information on the next pages of the books. This bit is what the Authors Guild says destroys the integrity of the publishing industry by making authors lose out on sales, Consumerist reported.
While Authors Guild is sure to raise the issue to the Supreme Court, the fact that its lawsuits have been repeatedly turned down is a good sign for the furtherance of human knowledge. The capacity to search rare books by searching in relevant terms in Google is a far cry from pre-Internet mastery of card catalogs and actual access to the libraries. The Second Circuit's decision is considered by Slate a "rare example of legal and poetic justice."
Besides, Google has put a limit on the number of pages an actual book's "snippets" could be viewed. The Court of Appeals says that these pages are not sufficient replacements for the actual books and therefore not a threat to authors' book sales, The Next Web noted.
The progress with the Court of Appeals will surely help development of Google Books as a service to humanity. The project had been in a state of uncertainty amid the legal battles even though it has in its databases the contents of 30 million volumes.
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