German publisher WGB dropped its petition for preliminary injunction against Google Books Library Project this week. Google says the Copyright Chamber of the Regional Court of Hamburg advised the company the petition would not succeed.
At issue was the display of short snippets of copyrighted works, which Google could provide after scanning those works, indexing them and making them searchable. Google’s project was met with a firestorm of opposition not only from European publishers, but stateside publishers as well.
From the Google Blog:
It’s our belief that the display of short snippets from in-copyright books does not infringe German copyright law. Today the Court indicated that it agreed, drawing a comparison with the snippets used in Google web search. And the Court also rejected the WBG’s argument that the scanning of its books in the U.S. infringed German copyright law.
The core of the issue hasn’t necessarily been snippets. It’s been the physical process of scanning and indexing without permission – especially with the display of contextual advertising. Google’s project, which is expected to take 10 years and cost about $200 million, offers publishers and authors the option of “opting out” of it.
Many believe it would not be in the best interests of any author or publisher to step out of the program, as it gives more exposure to the work, but authors have been sure to exclude themselves from it and sue Google in the process.
In Europe, the debate has been especially heated. When Google announced their ambitious plans as part of their overall goal of “indexing the world’s information,” France rallied the rest of the European Union with a vow to create their own digital library for fears of Anglo-Saxon cultural domination and what the harshest critics called “omnigooglization.”
Google has stuck to its plans despite the uproar, which has included a raucous debate at the New York Public Library, enlisting the aid of 4 major universities (in the U.S. and England) and the NYPL as well.
Google is passionate about the digitization of books, which we believe benefits everyone by making the world’s knowledge more accessible. And we’re also passionate about being responsible partners who can work closely with our thousands of partners around the world – publishers, authors and libraries – to help make this dream a reality.
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