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Google Wins Copyright Claim Dismissal in Publishers' Textbook Piracy Lawsuit (torrentfreak.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Pro@programming.dev to c/piracy@lemmy.world

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A lawsuit filed by educational publishers in 2024 accuses Google of profiting from textbook piracy. At the heart of the complaint are claims that Google's ‘systemic and pervasive advertising’ of infringing copies promotes pirated copies sold by third parties. In its recent motion to dismiss, Google argued that the publishers' vicarious liability claim fails to meet the legal standard. In an opinion and order handed down this week, the judge agreed - but not on everything.

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[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

The Court accepts that the removal of infringing ads and the termination of accounts may have an indirect effect by reducing traffic to the pirate sellers’ websites. However, that doesn’t mean that Google has any control over the websites where the infringement takes place, or that any measures applied to search would change that.

So this judge decides that Google is not liable for ads it shows, and because the publishers' issue is with the advertiser themselves, Google does not need to lift a finger to help prevent unlawful stealing. Great. By this logic Google can continue peddling porn to children, viruses to the unaware and harmful ideology to the vulnerable, because Google isn't the one serving the actual content. GG judge.