Responding to a positive twist in the Google case, after Judge Denny Chin granted authors class certification, the Authors Guild's executive director, Paul Aiken, called the decision a "key ruling for all U.S. authors whose literary works have been appropriated by Google."
The statement from the Guild continued:
"The class of authors includes all U.S. authors and their heirs with a copyright interest in books scanned by Google as part of its Library Project. Google has scanned 12 million books in that project, the majority of which are believed to be protected by copyright. Books from all over the world were copied, but U.S. works predominate.
"Google's liability for copyright infringement has not yet been determined by the court. Google's primary defense to infringement is that its actions are protected by fair use.
"If Google is found liable for infringement, copyright law prescribes statutory damages for willful infringement at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work."
