Supreme Court Says It Won't Hear Authors Guild Appeal Over Google Books Ruling

from the nice-to-see dept

Mon, Apr 18th 2016 11:36am — Mike Masnick

Last fall, the 2nd Circuit appeals court gave a clear and convincing win to Google in the long-running Authors Guild case against Google's book scanning program. And, really, the decision was a massive win for the public, in that it was a strong defense of fair use (even in commercial settings). But, of course, the still clueless Authors Guild -- which doesn't seem to actually represent the interests of most authors (many of whom have found Google Books to be a profoundly useful tool) -- decided to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the case.

That request has now been rejected. As is standard with the Supreme Court, no reason is given:

If you can't read that, it just says that the petition for cert is denied and that Justice Kagan "took no part in the consideration." I'm not exactly sure why Kagan abstained -- I thought perhaps she had weighed in on earlier rounds of the case as Solicitor General, but can't find anything.

Either way, this is a very good thing. The excellent 2nd Circuit ruling stands. And while it technically only applies to cases in that circuit, it will most likely influence cases elsewhere. Also, the Supreme Court has a long, and unfortunate, history of coming up with nutty decisions in big copyright cases.

041816zor-2co3 (PDF)041816zor-2co3 (Text)

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Filed Under: 2nd circuit, book scanning, copyright, elena kagan, fair use, supreme court
Companies: authors guild, google

20 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 11:47am

Not Surprising
The Supreme Court has a long, and unfortunate, history of coming up with nutty decisions in favor of big business in big copyright cases. Although they made the right move in this case, I suspect Google's size was the reason.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2016 @ 7:23am
  
  Re: Not Surprising
  The "big business", in this case would be the corporations who own the publishers, so, as usual, you're wrong.
  Try again, boy.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2016 @ 2:28pm
  
  Re: Not Surprising
  You do realize the "but but but Google" argument is pretty tired at this point?
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DannyB (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 12:01pm

But how will authors get paid?
If people can now freely read short snippets from out of print books that will never be in print ever, ever again, then how will the authors of those books get paid?
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- DannyB (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 12:02pm
  
  Re: But how will authors get paid?
  I hope I didn't need to put a /sarcasm tag on that.
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- True (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 2:59pm
  
  Re: But how will authors get paid?
  Simple.. When there book rights revert back to them from being out of print for so long. (This is standard in publishing contracts) they can they turn around and put it up on Amazon print on demand.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2016 @ 7:24am
    
    Re: Re: But how will authors get paid?
    Presuming the authors (or their descendants) are even alive.
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TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 12:45pm

The Guild's Next Move
Sue Google for not providing a link to "buy a drm laden copy for your kindle/ipad/whatever device here" at only twice the price of the original hardback, with all proceeds going into more lawsuits against innovation.
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- jupiterkansas (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 1:22pm
  
  Re: The Guild's Next Move
  Except Google already provides multiple links to buy the book if it's for sale.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 1:05pm

"nutty decisions in big copyright cases"

Translation:

"decisions that don't favor the corporations I astroturf for"
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 1:08pm
  
  Re:
  So, who do you astroturf for then? Clearly you must do it for /something/ if you're bringing up the subject.
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- DannyB (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 1:23pm
  
  Re:
  If you didn't have a twisted perverted view of copyright then you would see it the same way.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 2:08pm
  
  Re:
  Projection is a wonderful thing.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 5:40pm
  
  Re:
  Anonymous64 just hates it when due process is enforced.
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- techflaws (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 9:55pm
  
  Re:
  Translation:
  
  You're a lying jackass.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2016 @ 1:12pm

"Makes it harder to sell my books."

If _I_ were an author, the first thing I'd want everyone to know is, let me think, "if you read even a small snippet of my work, you're unlikely ever to want to purchase anything I write."

Yes, I'd paint that on billboards: I'D EVEN MAKE A FEDERAL CASE OF IT.
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Steerpike (profile), 18 Apr 2016 @ 4:56pm

The Author's Guild said today that the Courts focused too much on the public benefit of what Google was doing, and then said this:

"The price of this short-term public benefit may well be the future vitality of American culture...."

A bit of hyperbole there!
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- That One Guy (profile), 19 Apr 2016 @ 9:00am
  
  Re:
  With just a dash of humor too, given eternal copyright is much more damaging to culture than expanding fair use slightly, yet I doubt they'd be in favor of shortening copyright terms in order to bolster the 'vitality of American culture'.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2016 @ 4:59am

Avarice and greed, just one of the deadly sins.
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- DannyB (profile), 19 Apr 2016 @ 5:48am
  
  Re:
  Avarice and Greed are two, not one.
  
  And they are not deadly sins to a copyright pigopolist. They are virtues to be strived for.
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