MPAA Backs Authors Guild Against Universities

Hollywood is siding with the Authors Guild in its attempt to revive a copyright lawsuit against five universities that worked with Google to digitize books.

The Motion Picture Association of America argues in a friend-of-the-court brief that the trial judge incorrectly ruled that the universities were protected by fair use principles. Among other arguments, the MPAA contends that U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer in New York didn't adequately consider Google's role in the digitization initiative. According to the MPAA, Google's involvement gave the digitization project a commercial purpose that "weighs heavily against a finding of fair use."