U.S. Supreme Court Allows Google's Book-Scanning Project; Stephen Sondheim, Tony Kushner Among Opponents

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by a group of authors contending that Google's effort to scan millions of books for an online library violates copyright law.

Reported by Reuters as Authors Guild v. Google Inc., U.S. Supreme Court, No. 15-849, the case has seen many prominent individual writers, including Pulitzer Prize and Tony winners Sondheim and Tony Kushner sign on to a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Authors Guild, arguing that the project, named Google Books, illegally deprives them of revenue.

Google has argued that their collection of more than 20 million books would increase sales by making it easier for readers to find works and introducing them to books they might not otherwise have seen.

Google Books allows users to search the content of the books and displays excerpts that show the relevant search results. Google says in court papers the service "gives readers a dramatically new way to find books of interest" and lets people know where they can buy them. Users cannot read "any substantial portion of any book," Google said.

The decision to decline a challenge leaves in place an October 2015 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in favor of Google.

The three-judge appeals court panel said the case "tests the boundaries of fair use," but found Google's practices were ultimately allowed under the law.

The suit originated in 2005, a year after the project was launched. A lower court dismissed the litigation in 2013, prompting the authors' appeal.

Google had said it could have faced billions of dollars in potential damages if the authors had prevailed.

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Photos: Walter McBride