The Google Books Settlement Breaks Down, Lawsuit Back to 2005 Status

Six years ago, a coalition of publishers and author organizations sued Google over its Books program. The groups argued that Google was infringing on their copyright by scanning millions of copyrighted books, out-of-print or not.

Google on the other hand argued that what it was doing was fair use, since it was not making available to the public the entire works, just snippets of them in search results.

As the lawsuit progressed, the two sides started to look at ways of settling their disputes. They reached a deal which they were both satisfied with.

Google could continue to scan books and even sell the out-of-print ones for which the author or the copyright holder couldn't be determined. In return, the author and publisher groups would receive a big up-front payment and then get a cut of the sales.

If an author of one of those books was identified, Google would send a portion of the sales to him.

The court did not like the deal though, since it gave Google a big advantage over other companies, it could scan and sell out-of-print books, but others couldn't.

The judge asked the two parties to revise the deal. Several more months passed, but a new settlement couldn't be reached, so the lawsuit is going back to the start.

One thing that's changed is that the publishers have backed out, indicating that they are working on separate deals with Google. However, the Authors Guild is still in it.

In the latest hearing, a couple of days ago, the two sides again stated their case. Authors claimed that Google infringed on their copyright, Google said it was fair use, just like they did six years ago.

A settlement is unlikely at this point, which means that the lawsuit will go its course. Any ruling in this case promises to be a landmark one, since it will have to settle whether Google's actions are fair use or not. But that's still a few years away at this point.