Google Books officially launched in 2002 under the initial name Project Ocean. The project originated from discussions between Stanford University graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page that began in 1996.
The service uses custom mechanical cradles and dual-camera systems to capture images while human operators turn pages by hand using foot pedals. A range finder LIDAR overlays a three-dimensional laser grid on the paper to capture curvature before de-warping algorithms correct the page shape for text recognition.
US District Judge Denny Chin ruled in favor of Google in November 2013 citing fair use protections after rejecting an earlier settlement in March 2011. An appeals court sided unanimously with Google again in October 2015 declaring no violation of copyright law, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear the Authors Guild's final appeal in April 2016.
Initial partners included Harvard University Library which holds more than fifteen point eight million volumes and the University of Michigan which scanned five point five million volumes by March 2012. The New York Public Library offered public domain books in their entirety for free online access while Stanford University Libraries joined as part of the Green Library initiative.
Scholars reported rampant errors including misattributed authors and erroneous publication dates such as Woody Allen appearing in three hundred twenty five books ostensibly published before he was born. Scanning errors also included unreadable pages upside down images or crumpled pages obscuring thumbs and fingers alongside incorrect subject classifications like placing Moby Dick under computers.