Confessions of a Mad Librarian

From today's New York Times:

Writers Sue Google, Accusing It of Copyright Violation

Three authors filed suit against Google yesterday contending that the company's program to create searchable digital copies of the contents of several university libraries constituted "massive copyright infringement."

...

The plaintiffs, who are seeking class-action status, also include the Authors Guild, a trade group that says it represents more than 8,000 published authors. Listed as plaintiffs in the suit are Daniel Hoffman, a former consultant in residence at the Library of Congress and the author of many volumes of poetry, translation and literary criticism; Betty Miles, an author of children's and young adult fiction; and Herbert Mitgang, the author of a biography of Abraham Lincoln as well as novels and plays. Mr. Mitgang is a former cultural correspondent and editorial writer for The New York Times.

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Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, said the organization did not know whether Google had yet copied any of the works by the plaintiffs. But he noted that they were seeking an injunction against copying and a declaration that the program violates copyright law, as well as damages from any violations so far.

According to the article, all three of the authors have works in UMich's library, which is the member of the Google 5 that has the most expansive policy for digitizing works via the GooglePrint program. UMich does not appear to be a co-defendant in this suit.

The Authors Guild has a press release about the suit up on its website. The Times says that Google maintains that its digitization program is allowed under fair use.