The Supreme Court has declined to hear The Author’s Guild’s appeal of a decision that allows Google to scan copyrighted books.
The court upheld the 2013 decision that ruled in favor of Google. According to the decision, Google’s massive book scanning project, in which the online giant scanned millions of books and made them available through search without obtaining the permission of the copyright holders, is legal. Shortly after, The Author’s Guild filed the appeal. The Associated Press has the latest scoop:
The Authors Guild and several individual writers have argued that the project, known as Google Books, illegally deprives them of revenue. The high court left in place an October 2015 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in favor of Google.
“Today authors suffered a colossal loss,” said Roxana Robinson, president of the Authors Guild in a statement. “We filed the class action lawsuit against Google in September 2005 because, as we stated then, ‘Google’s taking was a plain and brazen violation of copyright law.’ We believed then and we believe now that authors should be compensated when their work is copied for commercial purposes.”