The latest IP related news pertains to Google’s digital copying of entire books as part of its Google Books service from Google Inc. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit recently confirmed the decision of the District Court that the scanning activities of Google within its Library Project are to be considered a fair use of copyright works.<\/p>\n
The Plaintiff-Appellants, who are the authors of published books under copyright, appealed from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Chin, J.) which had ruled in favour of Defendant Google, Inc. The Plaintiffs sued Google, alleging that its Library Project and Google Books project infringe Plaintiffs\u2019 copyrights. Plaintiffs alleged that Google through these projects makes and retains digital copies of books submitted to it by major libraries. It further allows the libraries that submit a book, to download and retain a digital copy under agreements which commit the libraries not to use their digital copies in violation of the copyright laws and allows the public to search the texts of the digitally copied books and see displays of snippets of text without any charge.<\/p>\n
In this case the plaintiffs had alleged infringement and had sought injunctive and declaratory relief as well as damages. Google however defended that its actions constitute \u201cfair use,\u201d which, under U.S.C. \u00a7 107, was \u201cnot an infringement.\u201d The district court being satisfied with arguments made by the Defendant had agreed [Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google Inc., 954 F. Supp. 2d 282, 294 (S.D.N.Y. 2013)] and concluded that Google\u2019s project was fair use under 17 U.S.C. \u00a7 107 and was therefore not infringing.<\/p>\n
The Plaintiff-appellants appealed before the Court of Appeals against the said decision, the arguments of the plaintiff were based on the following grounds:<\/p>\n
However, these arguments made by Plaintiff-appellants were rejected by the Appellate Court and it opined that Google\u2019s making of a digital copy to provide a search function is transformative which makes the information available about Plaintiffs\u2019 books without providing the public any substantial substitute for matter protected by the Plaintiffs\u2019 copyright interests in the original works or derivatives of them.<\/p>\n
On the Plaintiff\u2019s contention that Google had usurped their opportunity to access paid and unpaid licensing markets for substantially the same functions that Google provides failed in part because author\u2019s derivative rights do not include an exclusive right to supply information (of the sort provided by Google) about their works.<\/p>\n
The Court further opined that Google\u2019s program does not expose the Plaintiffs to an unreasonable risk of loss of copyright value through incursions of hackers as Google employs impressive security measures to guard its own confidential information.<\/p>\n
On the argument by the Plaintiff that, Google\u2019s provision of digital copies to participating libraries, authorizing them to make non-infringing uses, the Court held that the mere speculative possibility that the libraries might allow use of their copies in an infringing manner does not make Google a contributory infringer.<\/p>\n
The Appellate Court affirmed the decision of the District Court and concluded that Google\u2019s unauthorized digitizing of copyright-protected works, creation of a search functionality, and display of snippets from those works are non-infringing fair uses and that the defendant\u2019s copying is transformative within the meaning of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 578-585 (1994), and does not offer the public a meaningful substitute for matter protected by the plaintiffs\u2019 copyrights, and satisfies \u00a7 107\u2019s test for fair use.<\/p>\n
This decision of the Appellate Court clarifies and enlarges the boundaries of fair use. The ruling has once again stressed and reaffirmed the objective of Copyright Law in expanding public learning while protecting the incentives of authors to create for the public good.<\/p>\n
The full text of the judgment can be accessed here.<\/a><\/p>\n Authored by Bhuvana S \u00a0Babu<\/p>\n Contributed by Entertainment\u00a0Lawyer Group of BananaIP<\/p>\n For any further information on entertainment law in India, write to\u00a0contact@bananaip.com<\/a><\/p>\n