Authors Guild vs. Google Print

According to an article in the NY Times by Edward Wyatt, Sept. 21, 2005, the Authors Guild is making a lawsuit against on of Google's newest enterprises, Google Print (Library Program), that allow users to search in texts from participating libraries and companies. The Guild claims that Google Print is infringing the Copyright Act that "required it to obtain authorization from the holders of the copyrights in these literary works before creating and reproducing digital copies of the works for its commercial use and for the use of others." Google responded by stating that their project is legitiment through the fair use provision, that allows for material to be used once for non-commercial reasons. The Google rep went on to claim the benefits of this program to the authors and users alike, and was disappointed that the Guild was trying to limit knowledge to the users. Google had decided to suspend this library project until November, to give authors time to decide what they do or do not wish to be available through Google Print. The Guild rep made the comment that this "solution" is against the purpose of the Copyright Laws, because the owners of the copyrights are having to regulate what is or is not able to be used, instead of users having to ask permission to use the Copyrighted material.
I was quite surprised when I read that neither Google Print or the participating libraries asked permission from the authors to database their works for Internet Users. I'm not surprised at the lawsuit. I also agree that it does seem counter to the Copyright Act for the authors to have to give permission to Google Print, instead of the other way around. I can, of course, understand the Google and user perspective of wanting there to be as much information out there as possible to access, especially from accredited sources. In the end, I'm going to have to side with the Authors Guild on this one, because Google didn't go through appropriate protocol, and I think that the real issue was not asking the copyright owner's permission to use their works in such a manner.