14 DAY TRIAL // US District Judge Denny Chin came to a decision in the long running and controversial Google Books lawsuit. Unfortunately for both parties involved, the judge rejected the settlement between Google and the Authors Guild which would enable Google to scan and sell any book as long as the copyright holders didn't specifically object to this.
The court argued that the settlement goes way beyond the object of the lawsuit and that the deal was more commercial rather than legal in nature.
What's more, it gave Google a clear competitive edge by granting it a 'de facto' monopoly on so called orphaned books, works who's copyright holders can't be determined of found.
The lawsuit is in its sixth year now. The Authors Guild sued Google back in 2005 over its scanning process for Google Books. It argued that Google's digitization process was infringing on the copyrights of the authors represented by the group.
The two parties reached an agreement in 2008 and proposed the settlement to the court. As the court reviewed the settlement, which would have enabled Google books to sell out-of-print books even if the original copyright holder was not found, other parties got involved to dispute it.
The US Department of Justice argued against the settlement citing antitrust issues. Competitors banded together to also challenge the deal saying it would give Google too much power.
A revised settlement was proposed, which mended some of the areas where there were complaints. Due to the complexities of the case, the judge took more than a year to reach a final conclusion.
When he finally came to one, he rejected the deal mostly out of competitive concerns. On the one hand, the settlement went way beyond the scope of the initial lawsuit. The case was about Google scanning copyrighted books, not about giving the company a wide ranging deal enabling it to sell books at will.
What's more, while the deal was not exclusive, it meant that Google would be the only one allowed to sell orphaned books unless competitors were able to strike similar deals. Authors as well didn't like the idea of their works being scanned and sold by Google unless the specifically asked the company to not do so.
With the decision now being against the settlement, the two parties are back to square one. It's clear that any deal resembling the current one is not going to happen. For one, anything involving orphaned books, the most important issue for Google, is out, it's unlikely a judge would approve something that so greatly affects copyright law.
The Authors Guild wants to get some kind of deal, it would receive $125 million in the current form, and Google wants to be able to move forward. But it's increasingly looking like the US Congress will have to get involved and create a law or amendment, at least to cover orphaned books, which is exactly what the judge suggested.