Supreme Court Says It Won't Hear Authors Guild Appeal Over Google Books Ruling

from the nice-to-see dept

Last fall, the 2nd Circuit appeals court gave a clear and convincing win to Google in the long-running Authors Guild case against Google’s book scanning program. And, really, the decision was a massive win for the public, in that it was a strong defense of fair use (even in commercial settings). But, of course, the still clueless Authors Guild — which doesn’t seem to actually represent the interests of most authors (many of whom have found Google Books to be a profoundly useful tool) — decided to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the case.

That request has now been rejected. As is standard with the Supreme Court, no reason is given:

If you can’t read that, it just says that the petition for cert is denied and that Justice Kagan “took no part in the consideration.” I’m not exactly sure why Kagan abstained — I thought perhaps she had weighed in on earlier rounds of the case as Solicitor General, but can’t find anything.

Either way, this is a very good thing. The excellent 2nd Circuit ruling stands. And while it technically only applies to cases in that circuit, it will most likely influence cases elsewhere. Also, the Supreme Court has a long, and unfortunate, history of coming up with nutty decisions in big copyright cases.

Filed Under: 2nd circuit, book scanning, copyright, elena kagan, fair use, supreme court
Companies: authors guild, google