A federal appeals panel in Manhattan has expressed support for Google Inc.'s plan to create the world's largest digital library.
Three judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday spoke positively about the benefits the plan would provide the world.
The panel is considering an appeal by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google of a judge's decision on class certification of authors in a lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild.
The guild is seeking $750 in damages for each copyrighted book Google copied. It says Google is not making "fair use" of copyrighted material by offering snippets of works. Google has defended its library, now more than 20 million books, saying it is fully compliant with copyright law.
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