Google Books does not harm copyright

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeal has decided that Google may continue digitising millions of books without payment to the authors. The case had been running for ten years. The initial verdict was also in favour of Google.

Google started its library project in 2004 and has scanned 20 million books already. Users can look through the books and read fragments. Google informs them where the book can be bought or borrowed. According to the courts this does not violate copyrights.
The Authors Guild, the American association of writers, went to court in 2005. Google´s library project was said to be a commercial project and the internet giant was supposedly infringing on copyrights. In 2003 a judge decided that Google was supplying a public service without copyright infringement. The Court of Appeal has confirmed this. According to the judges only a limited part of the books are made public.
Google says that the service is profitable for the writers as their books are now easier to find.