By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The Authors Guild is an American organization of and for published authors. It has around eight thousand members, among them authors, literary agents and attorneys (who mainly deal in book publishing). The current president (as of April 2010) is Scott Turow and the current vice president is Judy Blume. - Source: Wikipedia
Google and major book publishers have settled a lengthy legal battle over digital copyrights, but a bigger dispute still looms with thousands of authors who allege that Google is illegally profiting from their works.
A federal judge granted class certification to authors challenging Google Inc. over its plans for the world's largest digital library Thursday, finding it more sensible to have a single legal action than scores of individual lawsuits.
Google Inc. urged a judge Thursday to toss The Authors Guild and an organization representing photographers out of 6-year-old litigation over the future of the world's largest digital library, a move that would force authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant.
One of the country's largest publishers, Penguin Group (USA), has suspended making e-editions of new books available to libraries and won't allow libraries to loan any e-books for Amazon.com's Kindle.
One of the country's largest publishers, Penguin Group (USA), has suspended making e-editions of new books available to libraries and won't allow libraries to loan any e-books for Amazon.com's Kindle.
Authors and authors' groups in the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom sued the University of Michigan and four other universities Monday, seeking to stop the creation of online libraries made up of as many as 7 million copyright-protected books they say were scanned without authorization.
A judge warned lawyers for authors and publishers and Google Tuesday that he will decide whether snippets of books can be sold online without the permission of copyright holders if the sides do not settle their 6-year-old case soon with an agreement to create a massive online library.
A judge rejected a deal between Google and the book industry Tuesday that would have put millions of volumes online, citing anti-trust concerns while acknowledging the potential benefit of putting literature in front of the masses.
A literary agency's decision to publish e-editions of "Lolita," "Invisible Man" and other classics and sell them exclusively through Amazon.com received a mixed response from the Authors Guild, which represents thousands of published writers.
