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sneaklast Thursday at 12:11 AM1 replyview on HN

Downloading a torrent isn't piracy if you are a license holder for the information that you are downloading.


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gpmlast Thursday at 12:24 AM

*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.