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Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc.

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

954 F. Supp. 2d 282 (2013)

Facts

Google, Inc. (defendant) obtained permission to digitally scan copies of books from various library collections for inclusion in an electronic database. Some libraries allowed Google to scan both public-domain and copyrighted books. Most of the books were nonfiction. The Google Books tool allowed internet users to search this database, revealing snippets of text from a book (rather than the entire text). A group of copyright holders, including the Authors Guild, Inc., and three individual authors (collectively, the copyright holders) (plaintiffs), brough a class-action copyright-infringement suit. The United States District Court of the Southern District of New York granted the copyright holders’ motion for class certification. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated this decision and remanded the case for consideration of fair-use issues. Google moved for summary judgment. The copyright holders moved for partial summary judgment.

Rule of Law

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Issue

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Holding and Reasoning (Chin, J.)

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A "yes" or "no" answer to the question framed in the issue section;
A summary of the majority or plurality opinion, using the CREAC method; and
The procedural disposition (e.g., reversed and remanded, affirmed, etc.).

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