IS201: Moving Forward in Copyright Laws
Do you think copyright laws will change in the future? Let’s take a look at Google books. Google began its book-scanning project in 2004, without obtaining permission from copyright holders. The next year, groups representing authors and publishers sued Google claiming copyright violations, beginning an eight-year court battle. In the meantime, Google has continued to scan more than 20 million books, the majority of which are out of print without compensating copyright holders. They are searchable on the Google Books website, which returns snippets but not entire texts. Some full books are for sale on Google Play through partnerships with publishers. Google also has certain agreements to give libraries and publishers digital copies of their books that it scans.
Although the Judges have ruled in favor of fair use and that Google did not infringe copyright laws [The Authors Guild, Inc. v Google Inc. 2013 WL 6017130 (S.D.N.Y. Nov.14, 2013)], the case has now been appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by The Authors Guild.
What do you think are the merits and demerits of this case (i.e. is the decision fair or not for the authors)? If Google’s fair use is upheld what do you think could be the repercussions in the future of digital copyright laws?