A class action suit against Google was filed today in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of the Authors Guild, two authors, and a poet, alleging massive copyright infringement as a result of Google Print for Libraries project.
The suit alleges that the $90 billion search engine company is engaging in the copyright infringement at the expense of the rights of individual writers. The Google Print for Libraries project aims to scan the entire collection of 5 major libraries and make the literature available online. Only material considered in the public domain will be posted in full. Copyrighted material will be scanned and only snippets of text will be made available that include search terms.
“This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law,” said Authors Guild president Nick Taylor. “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.”
Former New York Times editorial writer and Abraham Lincoln biographer Herbert Mitgang, children’s book author Betty Miles, and former Poet Laureate of the United States, Alfred A. Knopf join the Authors Guild in the lawsuit, complaining that Google has not sought the approval of the authors before copying the works.
Here’s an excerpt from the filing itself:
“Google knew or should have known that the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 101 et seq. (“the Act”) required it to obtain authorization from the holders of the copyrights in these literary works before creating and reproducing digital copies of the Works for its own commercial use and for the use of others. Despite this knowledge, Google has unlawfully reproduced the Works and has announced plans to reproduce and display the Works without the copyright holders’ authorization. Google intends to derive revenue from this program by attracting more viewers and advertisers to its site.”
The complaint seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to halt further infringements. If found guilty of copyright infringement, Google could face fines up to $150,000 per infringement.
Before action was filed, Google has defended its project citing a precedent of Kelly v. ArribaSoft, a judgment in favor of an image search engine based upon the provisions of Fair Use.
Google was not available for comment at the time this article was released.
