The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has granted a stay in a 7-year-old copyright lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild over the Google Books scanning project.
On Monday, Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier Jr. granted Google's request for a stay in district court while the appeals court reviews Judge Denny Chin's decision to grant class-action status to the authors. Chin, now on the appeals court, allowed the class-action lawsuit to move forward last May.
The Authors Guild filed the lawsuit in 2005. The group argues that Google's book-scanning project has hurt millions of authors whose works have been digitized.
The Authors Guild sought class-certification status for its case in order to represent all copyright holders in the U.S whose books have been scanned by Google as part of its Library Project. Google has digitized more than 20 million books since the project started in 2004.
The Authors Guild consented to Google's request for a stay in the case.
