Comments on: The Google Books Lawsuit Will Go To Court http://www.sfwa.org/2011/09/the-google-books-lawsuit-will-go-to-court/ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Sun, 19 May 2013 20:02:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Elizabeth Moon http://www.sfwa.org/2011/09/the-google-books-lawsuit-will-go-to-court/#comment-80024 Elizabeth Moon Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:22:21 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?guid=b83221693d1e2c06b3761ba6414ee0fd#comment-80024 Back when I was in university, “fair use” did not include copying and disseminating copies of a work–as the little signs near the copy machines warned students and faculty. Libraries, even research libraries, are not the authorized publisher for most of the works they hold. Professors were told to order reprints of journal articles or send students to the library to read the relevant issues in the library’s collection, rather than hand out photocopies. And they have certainly not exercised due diligence in searching for copyright holders.

Given that they’re apparently using the files from Google, which also exercised zero diligence in determining that works were not protected by copyright, I’d say the suit has considerable merit and their noble cause isn’t very.

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