Google's book copying project isn't infringement, 2nd Circuit rules
A federal appeals court has tossed a lawsuit claiming Google’s book scanning project is infringing copyrights.
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the digital scanning is fair use because only book snippets show up in search results, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog and the New York Law Journal (sub. req.) report. How Appealing links to the opinion (PDF) and additional coverage.
“The purpose of the copying is highly transformative, the public display of text is limited, and the revelations do not provide a significant market substitute for the protected aspects of the originals,” the court said.
One of the plaintiffs, the Authors Guild, will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, according to the group’s executive director, Mary Rasenberger.
Google has scanned more than 20 million books since the project began in 2004.
Related article:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge rules Google’s book-scanning project is fair use”
