NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge granted class certificationto authors challenging Google Inc. over its plans for theworld's largest digital library Thursday, finding it moresensible to have a single legal action than scores of individuallawsuits. Judge Denny Chin said in a written ruling that class action is"more efficient and effective than requiring thousands ofauthors to sue individually." He added that requiring eachauthor to sue Google would risk disparate results in nearlyidentical lawsuits and exponentially increase the cost oflitigation. He also rejected Google's request to toss from the case TheAuthors Guild, which had sought class certification. Google alreadyhas scanned more than 20 million books for the project. In a statement, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said: "Aswe've said all along, we are confident that Google Books isfully compliant with copyright law. Today's decisiondoesn't determine the underlying merits of the case, nor doesit resolve the lawsuit." Paul Aiken, executive director ofthe Authors Guild, said: "This is a key ruling for all U.S.authors whose literary works have been appropriated byGoogle." In his decision, Chin said Google hadn't pointed to any legalor factual argument by The Authors Guild that would undermine thecopyright claim of any other class member. "Indeed, it is possible that some authors who `approve'of Google's actions might still choose to join the classaction," he said. The class action status pertains to a lawsuit that The AuthorsGuild brought nearly seven years ago questioning whetherGoogle's creation of its digital library constitutedcopyright infringement and whether it could be argued that Googlewas making "fair use" of copyright material by offeringsnippets of works in its online library. "These issues are largely subject to `generalizedproof,'" the judge wrote. "Every potential classmember's claim arises out of Google's uniform,widespread practice of copying entire books without permission ofthe copyright holder and displaying snippets of those books forsearch. Whether this practice constitutes copyright infringementdoes not depend on any individualized considerations." He added that since the plaintiffs were only seeking statutorydamages, there was no need for any individualized inquiry into theharm suffered. In rejecting an earlier settlement last year, Chin noted that manyof the hundreds of objections would vanish if the library onlyconsisted of works in which authors and publishers had grantedtheir permission rather than a system in which books were includedunless Google was informed that an author or publisher objected. The judge has supported the overall goal, saying a digital universefor books would let libraries, schools, researchers anddisadvantaged populations gain access to far more books, would helpauthors and publishers find new audiences and new sources of incomeand would allow older books – particularly those out of print– to be preserved and given new life. ( MORE: Patent Wars! ). I am an expert from seamless-stainlesssteelpipe.com, while we provides the quality product, such as 316L Stainless Steel Pipe , Stainless Steel Round Bar Manufacturer, 304 Stainless Steel Pipe,and more.
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