Google has been granted an appeal to contest the original class action lawsuit that the Authors’ Guild filed against the company for the 20 million ebooks it created by scanning them. Google contests that the books did not do any of the authors or their estates financial harm, but the AG wants $750 for each book scanned.
If the appeal is granted by the Second Circuit, this would invalidate the class action lawsuit brought upon by the Authors Guild, effectively giving Google the win. The alternative is that it would be denied and the seven year old court case would resume. Should the appeal be denied, it would at least give some guidance to the existing judge overseeing the case and give people a sense of how it would pan out.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
