Library Project? Google Scans 20 Million Books and GIVES 2.7 Million to Library Partners!

The Authors Guild slammed Google with an appeal in its copyright infringement lawsuit. The Guild accuses Google of stealing copyrighted books with a clear intent to make a profit rather than the altruistic public good "digital library archive" it claims. 

Google has scanned millions of in-copyright books without the authors' permission, and has in turn given those scanned book files to its so-called library partners. The brief from guild lawyer, Jan Constatine, states that "Google must not be permitted to build its financial empire on the backs of authors".

The Guild also points out that while Amazon's "Search inside the Book" feature is aimed at SELLING more BOOKS, Google's Library Project was nothing more than an effort to enhance Google's site that is "focused on selling advertisements and keeping the resulting revenue".

It also contends that Google's unauthorized copying "lured potential book buyers away from online bookstores and provided no compensation to the rightholders for Google's revenue-generating uses of their books."

The appeal also expresses shock that the District Court could uphold the Library Project when two years earlier it had been "broadly critical" of the program when it rejected a settlement proposal between authors, publishers and Google. 

This legal process began in 2005 when the Guild sued Google, claiming that the Library Project, "constitutes copyright infringement on a massive scale."

Personally, I'm behind the Guild's interpretation of reality and will be watching the progress of this lawsuit with great interest. The final outcome will have a very big impact on all authors and will become a precedence for future lawsuits and copyright infringement scams. 

What do you think?

*for more information about this lawsuit, see:

Publisher's Weekly