Cases

The Scholarly Communication Office provides information to the University community regarding copyright and other information law cases of particular interest to higher education.  Case summaries and news briefings are made available on the library website.

Pending copyright cases

AIME v. UCLA - Video publishers claiming copyright infringement for UCLA's videostreaming service. Case dismissed with prejudice, November, 2012, in a victory for UCLA and its course-related videostreaming service.  We are now waiting to see if AIME will appeal this decision.  Learn more.

Google Books case - In October 2012, the publishers settled their case with Google in October, leaving the Authors Guild as the primary plaintiffs. As of the end of 2012, the class certification of the "authors" class is on appeal to the Second Circuit.  Google mounted a strong "fair use" defense of its practice of indexing books for search. Learn more.

Cambridge University Press v. Becker (the Georgia State University "e-reserves" case) - Big victory in 2012 for libraries and universities providing "ereserves".  The publishers have appealed this case to the 11th Circuit. 

Authors Guild v. HathiTrust - Big victory in 2012 for the library nonprofit, providing search access to digitized books, replacement copies for libraries, and disability access to books.  The publishers have appealed this case to the 2nd Circuit. 

Kirtsaeng v. Wiley (first sale case) - Supreme Court oral arguments held Oct. 29, 2012, on this copyright "first sale" doctrine case.  Look for a decision by June, 2013, at the latest. 

Other resources

Interested in learning more?  Here are some exceptional resources to learn about copyright or other caselaw. 

• Summaries of Fair Use Cases, from the Stanford University Libraries
• Major Cases, from the Fair Use Network (includes trademark and coypright cases relating to free expression)

Last Edited: 2 February 2013