Digitization and Transformative Uses

The mass digitization by Google of millions of books made available to it by various libraries remains a matter of legal contention.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will be reviewing a decision in 2013 where the US District Court in New York entered judgment in favor of Google based on a “fair use” defense under the Copyright Act of 1976.

The lower court found Google’s use was “highly transformative” because Google had converted the books’ text into digital form, creating a full text search capability that made existing works more accessible to users, and enabling new forms of research. The case underscores the increasing significance of “transformative use” in evaluating a fair use defense.