Some commentators think the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has already signaled its approval of Google Inc.’s effort to digitize the world’s books, albeit indirectly. After seven years of crusading against Google’s book project, the Authors Guild has tapped a new legal team and asked the court for a straight answer.
In a 67-page brief filed on Friday, the Authors Guild asked the Second Circuit to reverse a November 2013 ruling that the books project qualifies as fair use under U.S. copyright law. The trade group argues that the lower court ruling largely ignored the commercial nature of Google’s project and “cleared the way for other, less responsible parties to engage in their own mass digitization projects.”
