Comment by sneak
4 days ago
Downloading a torrent isn't piracy if you are a license holder for the information that you are downloading.
4 days ago
Downloading a torrent isn't piracy if you are a license holder for the information that you are downloading.
*If the license you have authorizes you to make a copy in that fashion.
But here, Google isn't a license holder. Google doesn't license the text in Google Books (unless something has changed since the lawsuits). Google simply legally acquires (buys, borrows, etc) a copy of the book and does things with it that the US courts have found are fair use and require no license.
Incidentally I believe the French courts disagreed and fined them half a million dollars or so and ordered them to stop in France.