NEW YORK—A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked a settlement that would allow search engine giant Google Inc. to digitize millions of books and post them on the Internet.
Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers reached a class-action lawsuit settlement in 2005 where the Internet company would pay $125 million to book authors, and in return, be able to scan and digitize millions of books and publish them online on Google’s servers.
But in an opinion written by Judge Denny Chin from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, the settlement agreement is unfair to the authors, Judge Chin stated.
The deal would “implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners,” Judge Chin wrote.
It “would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case,” he continued.
So far, Google has finished scanning 12 million books, and seeks to digitize millions more, in an effort to provide more people with easier access to books. Google was sued in 2005 but if finalized, the settlement would provide Google with immunity and rights to continue its scanning of copyrighted material.
“The vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries,” wrote Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a 2009 op-ed piece in the New York Times. “While this settlement is a win-win for authors, publishers, and Google, the real winners are the readers who will now have access to a greatly expanded world of books.”
Google said that most, if not all advertising revenue from its books project would be paid to the publishers and the authors of copyrighted works.
Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers reached a class-action lawsuit settlement in 2005 where the Internet company would pay $125 million to book authors, and in return, be able to scan and digitize millions of books and publish them online on Google’s servers.
But in an opinion written by Judge Denny Chin from the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, the settlement agreement is unfair to the authors, Judge Chin stated.
The deal would “implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners,” Judge Chin wrote.
It “would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case,” he continued.
So far, Google has finished scanning 12 million books, and seeks to digitize millions more, in an effort to provide more people with easier access to books. Google was sued in 2005 but if finalized, the settlement would provide Google with immunity and rights to continue its scanning of copyrighted material.
“The vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries,” wrote Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a 2009 op-ed piece in the New York Times. “While this settlement is a win-win for authors, publishers, and Google, the real winners are the readers who will now have access to a greatly expanded world of books.”
Google said that most, if not all advertising revenue from its books project would be paid to the publishers and the authors of copyrighted works.
