Authors Guild Sues Google for Copyright Infringement
September 20, 2005
New York, NY - The Authors Guild Inc., a non-profit organization representing 8,000 authors, charged Google with “massive copyright infringement” in a lawsuit filed today in federal court. The suit, which seeks class action status, accuses Google of conducting unauthorized scanning and copying of books through its "Google Print" program.
“This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law,” said Authors Guild President Nick Taylor. “It's not up to Google or anyone other than the authors, the rightful owners of these copyrights, to decide whether and how their works will be copied.”
The Authors Guild, based in New York, said Google has agreements with four academic libraries -- Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the University of Michigan -- and with the New York Public Library to create digital copies of substantial parts of their collections and to make those collections available for searching online. The Guild said Google has not sought the approval of the authors of these works for their program.
The lawsuit seeks damages and asks the court to stop Google, based in California, from copying the books to avoid irreparable harm authors would suffer by being denied control over the reproduction of their work.
Google’s Susan Wojcicki, Vice President, Product Management, issued a statement tonight that said Google respects copyright. “We regret that this group chose to sue us over a program that will make millions of books more discoverable to the world -- especially since any copyright holder can exclude their books from the program.”
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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