looking back at authors guild, inc v google, inc

who remember

Here’s a legal battle over digital systems and copyright I had completely forgotten about: Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. The short of it is that Google Books, involving as it did the scanning and digitizing of many books under copyright, was sued for copyright infringement. Google argued—successfully—that their replication of the books was fair use.

I was aware of this litigation when it was happening but, to be completely honest, did not care about it (and thus forgot about it).¹ Google Books was obviously useful. I used it. I didn’t understand why I’d be mad about it and I didn’t see that anything was at stake. One vociferous critic of Google Books, though, was Ursula K. Le Guin, which is why I was reminded of it recently. When the Authors Guild attempted to settle with Google, Le Guin resigned. She also wrote two posts (one, two) on her personal blo…