Google wins rights to Usenet material

Google wins rights to Usenet material


If it's posted then it's published

Google has won a two year legal fight for the right to publish Usenet message board material on its web site.

The case was bought after Gordon Roy Parker, who publishes his works on the internet under the name Snodgrass Publishing Group, sued Google for reprinting part of a book he wrote and posted on Usenet.

The excerpt, from the book “29 Reasons Not To Be A Nice Guy,” was cached by Google and can be accessed via the search engoine. Parker sued Google in 2004 on eleven charges, including direct copyright infringement, racketeering and invasion of privacy.

"We note preliminarily that Plaintiff’s Complaint is voluminous, consisting of seventy-two pages with 291 separate paragraphs of factual averments and legal allegations," reads the motion to dismiss the case, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

"In fact, Plaintiff devotes the first forty-five pages and 129 paragraphs, before any legal claims are stated, to an overview of the alleged wrongful conduct. Plaintiff’s inclusion of “50,000 John Does” as defendants further confuses this already unwieldy Complaint."

Judge Barclay Surrick dismissed the case, citing that none of the complaints had any merit.

This case could be pivotal to Google's plans to digitize the world's libraries. It faces serious legal problems from publishers and this case will help add to the body of law it will draw on over the next year.