The Authors Guild, an advocacy organization of Americans writers, has filed a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case against Google Books scanning project. The petition is seeking the review of a lower court ruling that allowed Google to scan and post copyrighted books for its Google Books Service without the author's permission.
The Authors Guild initially filed a lawsuit against Google in 2005 alleging copyright infringement. The tech giant launched Google Books a year earlier and began scanning books from leading research libraries to create a searchable online database. After a decade-long battle, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in October 2015 that Google's scanning project was fair use.
However, the Second Circuit ruling was termed by the organization as "flawed" and was said to have also failed to see the damaging effect of Google Books, International Business Times reported.
The Authors Guild's Executive Director and a copyright atttorney Mary Rasenberger said in a statement that Google copied books illegally without permission, because it could. Rasenberger said Google's actions cannot be justified after the fact just because Google Books uses the books to provide a research service in addition to the many other uses it has made for profit.
Jurist reported that the petition filed last week mentioned Google copied more than 20 million books. At least four million of the books were still protected by copyright, but the company never got permission for their reproduction.
The oldest America's writers organization further alleged Google provided the libraries with unlicensed digital copies of the books. The books that Google copied are stored in the Google Books search engine database, which became available to all internet users.
According to The Washington Post, the Authors Guild does not want to shut Google Books down, but it does want Google to pay copyright fees. Rasenberger also cited that the organization is asking for authors to be compensated for the value their works bring to Google, and it wants to make that very clear. She added that the Authors Guild's members are some of the biggest users of Google Books.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Authors Guild's petition. However, the company has said in the past statement that it believes Google Books does fall under fair use.
Google noted that Google Books scanning project has become invaluable research tool for many. Google also said that it would be prohibitive for it to provide the service and pay authors what has been determined by copyright law.
