Authors Guild appeals Google Books decision

Copyright thoughts for Marcel, even
during NYE toast: do the
flowers on his glass ... 

Just a couple of days have passed since this Kat indicated the decision of Judge Denny Chin in the Google Books Library Project case (here and here) as the most important copyright ruling of the year, with the disclaimer that a new chapter of this saga would be written in appeal. 

This is indeed what will happen.

Yesterday, Publishers Weekly announced that, in a filing with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Authors Guild gave notice that it is appealing Judge Denny Chin’s ruling before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [where incidentally Judge Chin now serves].

... infringe copyright in those on
Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque
champagne?

Still according to Publishers Weekly, the appeal could be complicated by the fact that the Second Circuit is already preparing to rule on a parallel case, the Authors Guild v HathiTrust [on which see here and here]. 

The HathiTrust case was first brought in 2011, a few months after Judge Chin rejected the revised settlement between the Authors Guild and Google.

This case also deals with unauthorised book scanning. The Authors Guild unsuccessfully sued HathiTrust, a collective of Google's library scanning partners, claiming copyright infringement. 

As noted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), this was "a puzzling suit to bring -- if anything, the libraries have an even stronger fair use defense than does Google."

We'll see what happens in the coming copyright-rich months ... Stay tuned and have a great New Year's Eve!