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Google Books

Don’t Shoot The Messenger - Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.

Jim Bouton, one of the designated hitters represented by the Authors Guild took another swing at Google Books services program in the United States Court of Appeal (2nd Circuit) (“the Court”). The Court rejected the copyright challenge brought forward by the Authors Guild and concluded that Google’s activities were transformative in nature and thus fell […]

Google’s digital library wins fair use against Canadian writers

Won’t somebody think of the children!? A New York federal court judge will. A copyright infringement lawsuit by multiple authors’ groups – including two Canadian ones – against Google and several universities for their HathiTrust Digital Library book scanning and digital distribution has been dismissed.

Google Plays Nice with French Publishers, Trial Scheduled in the U.S.

In June, Google, Inc. received some welcome news in France after the lawsuits instigated by the French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l’édition) and the French Author’s Association (Société des gens de lettres) were withdrawn following a successfully agreed upon “framework” settlement. Google wrote on its European Public Policy blog that the new arrangement gives […]

EU Affirms Commitment To Homegrown Google Books Alternative

Ben Farrow is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. On October 27, 2011 the European Commission adopted a recommendation (2011/711/EU) calling for the nations of the EU to pool their resources and renew their commitment to the digitisation of European cultural texts and artifacts. These cultural materials are stored in Europe’s digital library, […]

Authors’ Groups File Complaint Against Google For Mass Copyright Infringement

Mekhala Chaubal is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. The dust over Google’s 6-year long litigation with the Authors Guild has not even begun to settle, when already the next copyright infringement dispute between the two parties seems to be looming. For more information regarding the now-infamous Google Books Lawsuit, see the article […]

Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace

Pamela Samuelson is the Richard M. Sherman ‘74 Distinguished Professor of Law and Information at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Samuelson has a new article available on SSRN, “Google Book Search and the Future of Books in Cyberspace" (forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review). The Google Book Search (GBS) initiative once promised to […]

Revised Google Books Settlement: Orphan works and competition

Billy Barnes is a JD candidate at the University of Toronto. Last Friday, Google filed a revised settlement agreement for the class action law suit regarding its Google Book Search service. The settlement addresses many complaints directed at the original proposed settlement in October 2008. The two most important of these are the handling of […]

IP Colloquium Podcast asks: Can Content Survive Online?

Stuart Freen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. Good news for IP lovers who want to get their fix of policy debate at the gym or in the car: The Intellectual Property Colloquium podcast is for you. Based out of UCLA, the monthly downloadable program is hosted by law professor Doug Lichtman […]

Digital Books Monopoly: What Will Happen When Google Passes 'GO'?

Back in November 2008, I wrote about the challenges that Google faced in their Google Books Library Project and their proposed settlement in response. To refresh, the Google Books Library Project is a hugely ambitious initiative to catalogue the millions of books in the collections of several major libraries and include them into Google Book […]