During recent years we have witnessed the continuous growth of internet as an information
resource. In 2004, Google Books Project brought about a sea change in the future of books.
All the literary works were made searchable through Google Books search engine, regardless
of their copyright protection. In addition, public domain books were made available to the
public directly in their entirety.
However, this initiative was brought before the courts. The reason was that the project
was infringing copyrights of authors and publishers. The most important copyright case was
Authors Guild v. Google Inc., which was litigated in the United States. In late 2013, the
presiding judge reached to a decision, which is analyzed below. Other lawsuits against
Google Books were also brought in front of EU courts, where the EU legal framework is
completely different from the US one.
Furthermore, because of the territoriality principle, copyright law is enforced only
within the borders of every state. Questions have surfaced regarding how copyright law
applies, with the rise of Internet. Some legal initiatives to address this problem will be
discussed, too.
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