Google wins 11-year court battle over book rights

In 2005, the Authors Guild sued Google for scanning book excerpts for its database. 11 years later, the battle is over, and Google has won resoundingly following a judgment from the Supreme Court, which denied the option for appeal.

The Guild claimed the project hurt authors' abilities to make money from their work, while Google claimed everything it was doing was protected under fair use laws. After the ruling, both parties echoed these sentiments.

"We believed then and we believe now that authors should be compensated when their work is copied for commercial purposes," said Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson.

Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson stated, "We are grateful that the court has agreed to uphold the decision of the Second Circuit which concluded that Google Books is transformative and consistent with copyright law."

Should Google has lost the case, it would have faced billions of dollars in damages.