Digitization by Google Books Upheld as “Fair Use” by US Court of Appeals

In Authors Guild v Google Inc, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Appeals Court) affirmed a 2013 judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (District Court) in favour of Google, Inc (Google).  In 2013, the District Court granted summary judgment in favour of Google because Google’s scanning and making available of snippets of copyrighted text under the Google Books Library Project constituted fair use under US copyright law.  Google scanned, digitized and made searchable in its online service, Google Books, more than 20 million books from libraries. As part of this project, in response to user searches, Google made available snippets of copyright-protected text even if it did not have permission from copyright holders. Google claimed that this was fair use under the US Copyright Act.

In dismissing the Authors Guild’s appeal, the Appeals Court held that “Google Books augments public knowledge by making available information about Plaintiffs’ books without providing the public with a substantial substitute for matter protected by the Plaintiffs’ copyright interests in the original works or derivatives of them”. The Appeals Court ruled that Google’s commercial nature and profit motivation did not justify denial of fair use.