Authors Guild denied appeal to stop Google scanning books

The US Authors Guild's appeal against the earlier ruling that allows the tech giant to scan millions of books under 'fair use' has been rejected by the Supreme Court

A long-running face-off between the US Authors Guild and Google over the search engine's scanning of millions of books was brought to an end yesterday when the US Supreme Court denied the writers the right to appeal.

Backed by authors including Nobel laureate JM Coetzee and the Booker winners Richard Flanagan and Margaret Atwood, the Authors Guild appealed to the Supreme Court in February over the ruling that Google's scanning of millions of books constituted "fair use", and that "Google Books provide significant public benefits". Once scanned, the books, both in and out of copyright, are included in Google Books, which enables users to read extracts from books and search their texts.