Google defeats authors in U.S. book-scanning lawsuit

On Thursday, Google Inc. won dismissal of a long-running lawsuit by authors who accused the Internet search company of digitally copying millions of books for an online library without permission.

If the decision survives appeal, Google will be allowed to expand its growing library of digital snippets to more than 20 million books.

The lawsuit began in 2005 when an advocacy group known as the Authors Guild demanded $750 for each book Google had scanned, amounting to more than $3 million.

Reuters reports that the digital library could be good for some, including libraries and researchers.

James Grimmelmann, a University of Maryland intellectual property law professor, said the availability of the book excerpts could boost book sales rather than reduce them. Google is not putting up full copies of books online.

Google also faces litigation over digitizing content against other groups, including photographers and graphic artists.

Read more from Reuters.