Case of Digitisation of Books by Google

"On April 18, 2016, the Supreme Court issued an order declining to review a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in our landmark copyright infringement lawsuit Authors Guild v. Google. The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case leaves in place the Second Circuit’s unprecedented expansion of the fair use doctrine—holding that Google’s copying and providing access to some 4 million copyrighted books for profit-making purposes was a fair use.

While we are displeased with the outcome, our efforts were not in vain. Through this litigation we won strict limitations on display uses of copyrighted books, and this case blazed the trail for a real, market-based solution to mass digitization of books. Moreover, if we hadn’t challenged Google’s uses, other entities would have digitized books and used larger portions of them without the same security measures and limitations on secondary uses. The Guild will remain vigilant on copyright infringement and take action against those who test the Second Circuit decision’s limits.

The underlying legal issue in this case—the expansion of fair use—remains in need of resolution. We believe the Supreme Court will soon address this issue and reset the balance in fair use law, and when it does—and until it does—the Authors Guild will be there to ensure that copyright protects individual authors and enables them to earn a fair return for their investments in their books, which are essential to the free flow of ideas in our democracy.

 In what has been called “a big win for libraries and researchers”, a US District Court ruled in November 2013 that the Google Books Library Project is a fair use of copyright works.  Since 2004, Google has been creating the world’s major digital library, scanning more than 20 million books in their wholeness, most of which have been non-fiction works.  The Library Project allows members of the public to search through any book in Google’s collection, although Google limits the search results to scraps of the book rather than its full text."