Thursday 31 May, federal judge Denny Chin ruled that The Authors Guild, an association of authors, and other groups representing photographers and graphic artists can sue Google for copyright infringement in a class-action lawsuit. Google unsuccessfully tried to dismiss the claims by arguing that associations of  authors and photographers should not be allowed to sue the company as a group, thereby forcing the members to sue individually.

The case arises from a long-term dispute between the artists and Google. In 2004, Google signed contracts with libraries for scanning, distributing and displaying out-of-print books for its Google Books project. Goal of the project is to create the world's largest digital library, hereby helping researchers and the general public to find the material. Google has already scanned more than 12 million books.

Authors have the possibility to opt out when they don't agree to the arrangement between Google and the libraries. According to the Authors Guild’s lawyer, only books of authors who have given prior consent should be included in the Google Books project. 

According to federal judge Chin, it is unfair to force members of The Authors Guild and other groups to sue Google individually. It is more effective to sue as a group, rather than risk different rulings and exponentially higher costs of individual lawsuits, he says.

Google is convinced that Google Books fully complies with copyright laws. It says it only provide snippets of the books, which falls under the scope of fair use under U.S. copyright law.

The court hasn't decided yet if Google is liable for copyright infringement. The case will continue in September.

The complete decision can be found here.

Read more about Google Books on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• National Library of the Netherlands reveals agreement with Google on digitization of books
• Google Books reaches deal with French publisher La Martinière
• Google Books settlement does not get court approval

Source: Thomson Reuters