A group of book publishers has dropped out of the long-running copyright battle over Google Inc.’s plan to scan the world’s books into a vast digital library. That’s good news for Google and its lawyers at Durie Tangri, but the project’s most vocal opponent, the Authors Guild, doesn’t appear anywhere close to following suit.
The Association of American Publishers announced Thursday that five member publishers that first sued Google for copyright infringement back in 2005 have agreed to drop their claims as part of an out-of-court settlement. The deal doesn’t resolve copyright claims over the Google Library Project by the Authors Guild and the American Society of Media Photographers. Those claims are still pending in U.S. District Court in Manhattan before Judge Denny Chin, who held onto the case after he was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
