Google Triumphs in Book Scanning Copyright Case, Ruled Beneficial

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Ben Woods

Europe Editor

Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional (show all) Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.

Google has won an eight year long legal case against the Author’s Guild brought about by its decision to scan millions of books for indexing in its database.

According to GigaOm, the ruling notes that Google Books provides “significant public benefits” and is an essential research tool for many people leading the verdict to land on the side of non-infringement of copyright laws. It was deemed as ‘fair use’ because it was “highly transformative” (as a tool) and didn’t harm the original works.

The US Circuit Judge overseeing the case, Denny Chin, also rejected the idea that it amounted to a loss of income as Google Books doesn’t display the whole works and doesn’t sell the scans.

➤ Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits [GigaOm]