5 ms·

Google v Authors Guild: a victory for readers' right to choose

17 points by Libertatea 13y ago

mnw21cam 13y ago
Article seems a little content-free to me. Could someone in the know explain what exactly has been decided?
- jasonwocky 13y ago
  Not much. A lawsuit has been dismissed. What has been "decided" is that given the facts stipulated to by both the Authors' Guild and Google, Google is not breaking the law. Instead, their conduct is in accordance with "fair use". Nothing more or less.
- abrahamsen 13y ago
  "Accordingly, judgment will be entered in favor of Google dismissing the case." The complete ruling is here. It is written in plain English. I couldn't find a non-scribd link though, sorry for that. http://www.scribd.com/doc/184176014/Judge-Denny-Chin-Google-Books-opinion-2013-11-14-pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/184176014/Judge-Denny-Chin-Google-...
infocollector 13y ago
I am guessing this will be appealed and redone?
- jasonwocky 13y ago
  It will certainly be appealed. The results of the appeal are anybody's guess.
kephra 13y ago
A bad and cheerish article, imho - seen and expected better in the guardian. > and make "snippets" of it available online. Google does not scan "sniplets" they scan the complete book, they also do not pirate-publish sniplets, but the complete books, one sniplet at a time. Its easy to reset cookie, and do a new search to download the complete book. But while Jo average is jailed for it, or driven into suicide for doing same, Google is a multi billion company, one of the few things US is proud about. So they have the right of the power on their side. > What the Google settlement means for now is that the two great repositories of human culture, the book and the web, are a little less separate, and a little more alike. Scanning books for public good would be fine, if was done by library of congress, but its evil if its done by the big brother that is called Google.
- skj 13y ago
  > Scanning books for public good would be fine, if was done by library of congress, but its evil if its done by the big brother that is called Google. Wow, what an absurd thing to say.
venomsnake 13y ago
Just one question - what happens when for various reasons a ebook that is launched with DRM (or a game - as is the case of current GFWL) suddenly stops being available for society (technology obsolescence, company going out of business). We as a society are cheated - we provided protection of the content, but the content is lost and never enters public domain. That is the side of the equation no one talks about.

17 points by Libertatea 13y ago

mnw21cam 13y ago

Article seems a little content-free to me. Could someone in the know explain what exactly has been decided?

jasonwocky 13y ago
Not much. A lawsuit has been dismissed. What has been "decided" is that given the facts stipulated to by both the Authors' Guild and Google, Google is not breaking the law. Instead, their conduct is in accordance with "fair use". Nothing more or less.
abrahamsen 13y ago
"Accordingly, judgment will be entered in favor of Google dismissing the case." The complete ruling is here. It is written in plain English. I couldn't find a non-scribd link though, sorry for that. http://www.scribd.com/doc/184176014/Judge-Denny-Chin-Google-Books-opinion-2013-11-14-pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/184176014/Judge-Denny-Chin-Google-...

infocollector 13y ago

I am guessing this will be appealed and redone?

jasonwocky 13y ago
It will certainly be appealed. The results of the appeal are anybody's guess.

kephra 13y ago

A bad and cheerish article, imho - seen and expected better in the guardian. > and make "snippets" of it available online. Google does not scan "sniplets" they scan the complete book, they also do not pirate-publish sniplets, but the complete books, one sniplet at a time. Its easy to reset cookie, and do a new search to download the complete book. But while Jo average is jailed for it, or driven into suicide for doing same, Google is a multi billion company, one of the few things US is proud about. So they have the right of the power on their side. > What the Google settlement means for now is that the two great repositories of human culture, the book and the web, are a little less separate, and a little more alike. Scanning books for public good would be fine, if was done by library of congress, but its evil if its done by the big brother that is called Google.

skj 13y ago
> Scanning books for public good would be fine, if was done by library of congress, but its evil if its done by the big brother that is called Google. Wow, what an absurd thing to say.

venomsnake 13y ago

Just one question - what happens when for various reasons a ebook that is launched with DRM (or a game - as is the case of current GFWL) suddenly stops being available for society (technology obsolescence, company going out of business). We as a society are cheated - we provided protection of the content, but the content is lost and never enters public domain. That is the side of the equation no one talks about.