GOOGLEPRINT WINS IN GERMANY (KIND OF)

The Guardian reports that Google has won a victory for its GooglePrint service in Germany. Publisher Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG) argued that the scanning of its works infringed its copyright and that this was actionable in Germany.

The spokesman from the German printers' association (left) could not be reached for comment

However, the Hamburg Regional Court’s copyright chamber told WBG that is application for an injunction was unlikely to succeed. Motivating this finding seems to be the fact that the scanning took place in the US, not Germany, so US law would apply and US law has more generous fair use provisions. Because of the court’s indications, WBG withdrew its application for an injunction.

The IPKat is moderately surprised. He wasn’t expecting Google Print to clock up many copyright victories. However this wasn't an endorsement of the Google Print project - just a finding of no jurisdiction.