In win for libraries, court rules database of Google-scanned books is “fair use”

A federal appeals court ruled that the HathiTrust, a searchable collection of digital books controlled by university libraries, does not violate copyright, and that the libraries can continue to make copies for digitally-impaired readers.

The decision is a setback for the Authors Guild and for other groups of copyright holders who joined the lawsuit to shut down the HathiTrust’s operations. By contrast, it is a victory for many scholars and librarians who regard the database as an invaluable repository of knowledge.

More broadly, the appeals court decision is the latest in a series of rulings about how copyright law should apply to digital versions of the tens of millions of library books scanned by Google.

The unanimous ruling by three judges of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2012 decision that preceded the 2013 landmark ruling that declared that Google’s Book scanning project was fair use and had “many benefits.”