After almost a decade of litigation, Google scored a victory last week over the Authors Guild, which had sued the company for copyright infringement over its Google Books search engine. But a few important chapters in the legal saga have yet to be written.
The Authors Guild will appeal last week's decision from the Southern District of New York, which concluded that Google Books is protected by the fair use doctrine. Legal experts are sharply divided over the decision, with some seeing it as common sense and others puzzled by it.
"I was surprised. I wasn't expecting this outcome," said Hillel Parness, an intellectual-property litigation partner with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in New York, which filed amicus briefs with the court supporting the Authors Guild.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Band, a Washington, D.C., attorney whose client the American Library Association backed Google, said the decision was expected and consistent with fair use rulings. "I was pleased with the decision," he said.
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