Download Locations

• Open CRS (User submitted)

Summary

The Google Book Search Library Project, announced in December 2004, raised important questions about infringing reproduction and fair use under copyright law. Google planned to digitize, index, and display "snippets" of print books in the collections of five major libraries without the permission of the books' copyright holders, if any. Authors and publishers owning copyrights to these books sued Google in September and October 2005, seeking to enjoin and recover damages for Google's alleged infringement of their exclusive rights to reproduce and publicly display their works. Google and proponents of its Library Project disputed these allegations. They essentially contended that Google's proposed uses were not infringing because Google allowed rights holders to "opt out" of having their books digitized or indexed. They also argued that, even if Google's proposed uses were infringing, they constituted fair uses under copyright law. The arguments of the parties and their supporters highlighted several questions of first impression. First, does an entity conducting an unauthorized digitization and indexing project avoid committing copyright infringement by offering rights holders the opportunity to "opt out," or request removal or exclusion of their content? Is requiring rights holders to take steps to stop allegedly infringing digitization and indexing like requiring rights holders to use meta-tags to keep search engines from indexing online content? Or do rights holders employ sufficient measures to keep their books from being digitized and indexed online by publishing in print? Second, can unauthorized digitization, indexing, and display of "snippets" of print works constitute a fair use? Assuming unauthorized indexing and display of "snippets" are fair uses, can digitization claim to be a fair use on the grounds that apparently prima facie infringing activities that facilitate legitimate uses are fair uses? These and related questions could remain unanswered, at least for now, because Google and the rights holders seek to settle the litigation over the Google Book Search Library Project. A settlement agreement was originally proposed on October 28, 2008. However, although the court granted preliminary approval of this agreement on November 17, 2008, opponents of the settlement raised concerns about Google's potential monopolization of book searching, the treatment of orphan works, protection of searchers' privacy, the rights of foreign authors, and related issues in amicus briefs and other court filings. Responding to such concerns, the parties proposed a revised settlement agreement on November 13, 2009. The court granted preliminary approval of the revised agreement on November 19, 2009, and scheduled a final fairness hearing on it for February 18, 2010. Class members have until January 28, 2010, to opt into, opt out of, or object to the revised agreement. The court will consider any objections, as well as conduct an independent review of the proposed agreement, in determining whether to grant final approval.

XML - JSON