Google Books’ Win May Threaten Other Media

A decade ago, Google announced plans to scan and make searchable the world’s books, and it’s been fighting copyright lawsuits from authors and publishers ever since. After a seven-year legal battle, in 2012 the major US publishers reached a settlement with Google that allows them to keep copyrighted books from being displayed. On Oct 16 the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Google and against the Authors Guild, meaning writers can’t stop the search giant from adding their work to its online library of more than 20 million books. The saga has had enough twists and turns to fill a -- well, you know.

Media companies struggling to shift online are worried about the spread of the transformative use standard from artistic expression, like a musician’s sampling, to a massive undertaking, like Google Books. Both the Motion Picture Association of America and the music licensing organization ASCAP filed amicus briefs arguing for the Authors Guild. “If scanning all the books in the world and making parts of them available is fair use, you could do this with movies or music or television,” says Authors Guild executive director Mary Rasenberger.