Google Loses Digital Library Settlement Case Worth $125 Million

Google’s recent ambition to house a digital library may well remain unfulfilled. This news comes in post the search giant losing a settlement case in this regard.

Copy wrong!

The success of this settlement deal would have opened up a huge opportunity for Google. Google intended a settlement with authors from around the world, which would give it access to some of the best covers in the world. This would help them create the world’s largest, finest digital library. New York Judge Denny Chin disapproved the settlement case on grounds that it gave the search engine giant way too much power in this regard, so much so, that they would probably exploit the rights the authors confer over their titles.

Google had, for the same, scanned over 12 million copies to shortlist the best books. The settlement case started when Google was sued by the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers in 2005 over an alleged copyright infringement. However, the violation was scrapped after Google agreed for a $125 million settlement to all the grieving parties. The settlement had several forward approaches too and Google agreed to share the revenue with them too.

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In his explanation, the judge re-iterated the unfair advantage Google would have over publishing copyrighted works online without proper permissions in place. An alternative that he offered was that Google could instead use the published copies of authors who approached them.

The scrapped case has its share of bashers and supporters, too. For instance, Kindle digital reader maker Amazon Inc. opposed the very idea since its reader isn’t compatible with Google. On the other hand, Microsoft and Sony, readers of which are supportive of the reader favour the deal.