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by williamcotton 1132 days ago
If you’re curious, the case continued in different directions and reached important decisions regarding books, I won’t get into them because they are not relevant to GitHub. (Google being allowed or not allowed to show a one page preview of a book, to a user who was looking for a quote from a book, is not directly applicable to the concerns surrounding GitHub and GitHub Copilot)

Spoiler alert: Google was copying books in a manner considered fair use, consistent with Sony v Universal. I’m not sure why this author thinks this is irrelevant. The Federal court system surely won’t!
1 comments
htpltr 1132 days ago
Considered fair use? Google settled with the Authors Guild.

Displaying book excerpts also:

- Leaves the attribution and copyright intact.

- Is not intended to use excerpts verbatim or slightly modified, unless quoting them with attribution.

- May increase the sales of the book.

I agree with the OP of the submission that this case is entirely irrelevant for the CoPilot situation.

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williamcotton 1132 days ago
As this very article we are discussing notes, Google was not allowed to settle precisely because of this monopoly position. It went to trial:

In late 2013, after the class action status was challenged, the District Court granted summary judgement in favor of Google, dismissing the lawsuit and affirming the Google Books project met all legal requirements for fair use. The Second Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the District Court's summary judgement in October 2015, ruling Google's "project provides a public service without violating intellectual property law." The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently denied a petition to hear the case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,....

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