Supporters of Google’s effort to create the world’s largest digital library Internet told a federal judge Thursday that it would benefit society.
Marc Mauer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said the audio capabilities of Google’s system “will give us access to 10 million books.”
One of the opponents — which include authors, foreign governments, corporate rivals and even the U.S. Department of Justice — countered at a packed court hearing in Manhattan that Google’s plans were more about commerce, not access to books.
“It’s not going to be a great library, it’s going to be a good store,” said Sarah Canzoneri, a member of the Children’s Book Guild and plaintiff in a lawsuit by authors and publishers.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin already has read more than 500 submissions about a $125 million settlement aimed at ending a pair of 2005 lawsuits that tried to stop Google from scanning books into a gigantic online database.
On Thursday, he was hearing statements from interested parties before deciding whether changes made to a deal first announced in October 2008 are sufficient to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
“To end the suspense, I’m not going to rule today,” he said at the start. “There is just too much to digest.”
He added, “Voluminous materials have been submitted. There is a lot of repetition. Some of the submissions even quote other submissions.”
In court papers submitted last week, Google Inc., which is based in Mountain View, California, defended its deal with authors by saying its digital library lives up to the purpose of copyright law, which is to create and distribute expressive works.
“No one seriously disputes that approval of the settlement will open the virtual doors to the greatest library in history, without costing authors a dime they now receive or are likely to receive if the settlement is not approved,”…