panel spoke excitedly Wednesday
about Google Inc.'s plan to create the
world's largest digital library, signaling
that the court has a favorable opinion
about the value of the project.
Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Manhattan were
considering an appeal by Mountain
View, Calif.-based Google of a judge's
decision last year to grant class status
to authors represented in an 8-year-
old lawsuit by lawyers for the Authors
Guild.
The judges seemed eager to stray
from the narrow legal question to talk
about the merits of Google's effort,
which has already resulted in the
copying of more than 20 million books
made available in their entirety or in
snippets, generally depending on the
copyright or publishers' restrictions.
Judge Pierre N. Leval said the digital
library would seem a "huge
advantage" for "perhaps many"
authors who would want the operator
of the world's largest search engine to
provide snippets to potential
customers who might buy their books.
Judge Barrington D. Parker cited the
"enormous societal benefit" that
would result when someone at home
in Muncie, Ind., accessed books that
otherwise would require a trip to a
distant library.
Leval belittled an argument by a
lawyer for the Authors Guild who
suggested that people might read
enough snippets of a book that they
would not want to purchase it.
"And if you spend 780 hours doing
this, you'll save four dollars," Leval
said, adding that he was "skeptical
there will be millions of Americans
lining up to use this method to save
$13 on a book."
The judge also referred to the "logic of
the thing" as he described how an
academic author eager to get a
treatise read by other researchers
might welcome Google copying the
work rather than collecting "a few
dollars in damages because Google put
it in their database."
The Authors Guild is seeking $750 in
damages for each copyrighted book
Google copied, which would cost
Google more than $3 billion, Google
attorney Seth Waxman said. The guild
argues Google is not making "fair use"
of copyrighted material by offering
snippets of works. Google has
defended its library, saying it is fully
compliant with copyright law.
The appeals judges said they may not
rule on the class-action issue until the
trial judge decides whether Google is
making "fair use" of the books if it
only offers snippets to the public and
directs customers elsewhere to view
or purchase it.
Parker at one point asked Robert J.
LaRocca, a lawyer for the Authors
Guild, if the litigation had "effectively
scuttled this project that many want
to succeed."
LaRocca said the legal issues would
not take another decade or more to
resolve. He said one possible outcome
was that Google would be banned
from going ahead with its plans,
although he called that outcome "very
remote" and said it was more likely
that the Authors Guild, if victorious,
would ask the judge to order a
compulsory license requiring Google to
pay $750 for each new copyrighted
book it copied.
"We're not trying to sandbag Google,
if that's what you're suggesting,"
LaRocca told the judges.
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