Mediagazer: Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits (Jeff John Roberts/Gigaom)

6:05 PM ET, November 14, 2013

Top News:

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits — Google has won a resounding victory in its eight-year copyright battle with the Authors Guild over the search giant's controversial decision to scan more than 20 million books from libraries and make them available on the internet.

Discussion: Forbes, VentureBeat, The Switch, Business Insider, Wired, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Memex 1.1, District Dispatch, CNET, Search Engine Land, @umairh, @jjn1, @benedictevans, @ronwyden, Techdirt, AllThingsD, The Verge, @internetcases, The Next Web, Mashable, Engadget, WebProNews and Electronista

The Authors Guild:

Round One to Google: Judge Chin Finds Mass Book Digitization a Fair Use. Guild Plans Appeal. — Judge Denny Chin today ruled that Google's mass book digitization project to be a fair use, granting the company summary judgment in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild in 2005.

Discussion: Forbes, Businessweek, The Week, Online NewsHour, Wired and Talking New Media

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Google prevails over authors in digital books case — (Reuters) - Google Inc on Thursday won the dismissal of a lawsuit by authors who accused it of digitally copying millions of books for an online library without permission. — U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google's argument …

Discussion: Ars Technica, Gigaom, KQED News Fix, Reuters, Softpedia News and Boing Boing

Corynne McSherry / Electronic Frontier Foundation: Court Upholds Legality of Google Books: Tremendous Victory for Fair Use and the Public Interest

Pew Research Journalism Project:

News Use Across Social Media Platforms — How do different social networking websites stack up when it comes to news? How many people engage with news across multiple social sites? And what are their news consumption habits on traditional platforms? As part of an ongoing examination …

Discussion: Folio, Nieman Journalism Lab, MediaPost, AllFacebook, @pewinternet, TheBlaze.com, @sulliview, @pewjournalism, TechCrunch, @pewresearch, @adriennelaf and Mashable

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

About a fifth of Facebook and Twitter users often get news from newspapers, too — 21 percent of Facebook users and 18 percent of Twitter users tell the Pew Research Journalism Project they get news “often” from print newspapers. The organization continues to look at how social media users get news.

Discussion: @pewinternet

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

John Oliver Leaving Daily Show to Launch ‘Topical Comedy Series’ on HBO — It was only a matter of time. John Oliver's widely-respected gig as fill-in host for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show this past summer has landed him his own show, to be shown on HBO starting next year.

Discussion: Deadline.com, TVbytheNumbers, Speakeasy, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, @dorseyshaw and HitFix

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

New FCC Boss Tom Wheeler Says He Represents the People, Not the Tech Industry (Interview) — When Tom Wheeler was named in May to lead the Federal Communications Commission, some consumer groups fretted that the former cable- and wireless-industry lobbyist would favor industry over individuals.

Discussion: Ars Technica, @timkarr, @inafried, TheHill and DSLreports

Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost:

Roku, AOL To Co-Launch News Channel — Consumers' shifting content viewing habits continues to make strange bedfellows. On Thursday, AOL and set-top-box start-up Roku are expected to co-launch a news channel. — Produced by AOL's editorial team, the video channel will reside …

Discussion: Capital New York, The Next Web, CNET, TechCrunch and Gigaom

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Arianna Huffington Talks International Expansion — The Huffington Post has been on a whirlwind of international expansion. Today, 40 percent of its audience comes from outside the U.S., and according to its namesake president and editor in chief, more than half of the world's GDP has its own HuffPost.

Discussion: The Wrap

Lauren Rabaino:

Refocusing the “story” away from individual articles to the overarching narrative — Seattle Times team brainstorming at GEN hackdays at Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, California. — Kill the article. — That was the theme of the Global Editors Network hackathon that I participated …

Discussion: @laurenrabaino, @danielbachhuber, @ryanpitts and @codybrown

Glenn Peoples / Billboard:

Rap Genius and Sony/ATV Reveal Licensing Deal (Exclusive) — Rap Genius, the online lyric site with financial backing from Silicon Valley heavyweights, has signed its first licensing deal. Billboard has learned the Brooklyn-based startup has a licensing agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Discussion: The latest episodes …, New York Times, AllThingsD, Rolling Stone and Slate

ProPublica:

How to Get Censored on China's Twitter — The word “tank.” Photos and names of Chinese dissidents. Images of rubber ducks. Any mention of Tibetan protests or Bo Xilai, the disgraced senior member of China's Communist Party. Political cartoons. — Every day, more than 100 million items …

Discussion: ProPublica and IRE.org

Ann Friedman / Columbia Journalism Review:

BuzzFeed's all-positive books section — It doesn't make sense to pledge positivity if your aim is to provide readers with critics' takes on new books. It makes more sense if your aim is to cultivate a thriving community. — Last week, BuzzFeed's new books editor, Isaac Fitzgerald …

Discussion: @max_read and @abeaujon

Bruce Cheadle / Canadian Press:

Chrystia Freeland grilled about outsourcing of Toronto media jobs to India — Former employee of Reuters calls her ‘hypocritical’ for championing middle class — Chrystia Freeland and Linda McQuaig on Rogers TV debate on Nov. 13, 2013. — OTTAWA — A high-profile federal Liberal candidate campaigning …

Discussion: Macleans.ca and Talking Biz News

Ted Johnson / Variety:

FCC Eases Rule on Foreign Ownership of TV and Radio Stations — The FCC voted to allow foreign entities to invest more than 25% in broadcast stations, although the agency will still determine whether such investments can be made on a case-by-case basis. — Commissioners on Thursday described …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Radio & Television … and Wall Street Journal

Michael Kozlowski / Good E-Reader:

E Ink Records a Quarterly Profit as e-Reader Sales Increase — e Ink Holdings, the company chiefly responsible for developing the screen technology found on Kindles, Kobos and Nook e-Readers just released their financial earnings from the last quarter. The company has garnered over 15.5 million …

Discussion: focustaiwan.tw

Susan Glasser / Politico:

Introducing POLITICO Magazine — Welcome to Politico Magazine! For nearly seven years, Politico has aimed to drive the Washington conversation with an urgency, smarts and digital-era metabolism that has helped reinvent political news. On the day I am writing this, an organization …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

American Press Institute:

Understanding the rise of sponsored content — In recent years news publishers have grappled with an uncomfortable realization: The traditional revenue streams of display advertising and reader subscriptions may not be sufficient to support them in a digital age.

Thanks:@steverubel

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Exclusive - Comcast to sell movies for download, streaming: sources — (Reuters) - Comcast Corp plans to start selling movies for download and streaming through the cable operator's set-top boxes and its Xfinity TV website, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

Upworthy: Clickbait With a Conscience — The latest viral wizard of the Web matches smart technology and lily-white earnestness to market “stuff that matters” online, and the Gates Foundation is buying. — The first blockbuster hit came from an unlikely source: Irish talk radio.

Discussion: @tomgara

Ryan J. Reilly / The Huffington Post:

FBI Agent Insists He Wasn't First To Leak Info On Foiled Bomb Plot As He Heads To Jail — WASHINGTON — A former top FBI official was sentenced to over three years in prison on Thursday for disclosing national security information about a foiled bomb plot to an Associated Press reporter.

Discussion: @joepompeo and Associated Press

Mona Zhang / 10,000 Words:

Time Inc. CCO's Biggest Concerns for the Industry: Serious and Local Journalism — Norman Pearlstine has quite the resume. Having worked at The Wall Street Journal, Smart Money, Time Inc. and Bloomberg, the man who started out as a staff reporter was recently named chief content officer …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, FishbowlNY and Lost Remote

Jack Shafer:

Your ‘exclusive’ interview isn't — The journalistic lexicon abounds with terms designed to keep reporters' and editors' egos as plump, firm and purple as a ripe eggplant. If a dowdy news account needs dressing up, they rush to wardrobe to wrap it in the “special report” designation.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, @joepompeo, @johnjharwood, @ckrewson, @jeffreygoldberg, @matylda, @blucaller and @yesevamoore

Timothy B. Lee / The Switch:

Blogger threatened with 10-year prison sentence for posting public official's phone number — The city of Boston has a problem with public scrutiny. — Last year, the city agreed to pay $170,000 to settle a lawsuit by a man who was arrested for using his cellphone to record the actions of Boston police officers in a public park.

Discussion: Photography is Not a Crime and Techdirt