From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:32:23 -0600 No special psychological explanation is needed for the Guild's decision to appeal. The simple truth, which many people like Kevin fail to recognize, is that the decision represents bad law. Let me remind people that the Supreme Court has overturned decisions from the Ninth Circuit, where this particular interpretation of "transformation use" as repurposing only (there is no value added to the work itself, but only the social utility of using the work in different ways), more times (and often unanimously) than any other Circuit in recent memory. Perhaps some of you will recall the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in the Grokster fair-use case, overturning the Ninth Circuit's ruling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grokster. There is even conflict now within the Ninth Circuit over cases involving interpretation of "transformative use." Unlike Mr. Zick, who thinks this case is obviously over, there is still a lot of distance to travel before we get a definitive resolution, and it is by no means obvious to some lawyers that the appeal will inevitably fail. A lot of people thought the appeal of the GSU case would fail, too, including Kevin. Sandy Thatcher > From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 17:26:57 +0000 > > I am sure many of you have seen reports and commentary about Judge > Chin's decision in the lawsuit pursued by the Author's Guild against > Google over the Google Books Project. But this comment by Zick Rubin > takes a different perspective that I thought would interest list > members: > > http://www.zickrubin.com/GoogleBookstheAuthorsGuildandCognitiveDissonance.html > > Zick is a Boston-based attorney who represents publishers, authors, > and universities, especially in copyright and contract matters. He is > himself a member of the Author's Guild, largely because of his > writings during a previous career as a professor of social psychology > at Harvard and Brandeis. > > Kevin > > Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S., J.D. > Director, Copyright and Scholarly Communication > Duke University Libraries > Durham, NC 27708 > [log in to unmask]