Google Books Held "Fair Use" In The U.S. — But Would It Also Be "Fair Dealing" In Canada?

By affirming that Google Books is fair use under the United States Copyright Act (the "Act"), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Authors Guild v Google Inc., (2d Cir) Docket no. 13-4829-cv (October 16, 2015) may have closed the door on a decade-long battle between the search engine giant and the Authors' Guild (barring an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court). The Court found that Google's project—which entails the digitization of whole books—was highly transformative, and its purpose and function did not supplant the market for the original work. Further, Google Books significantly contributed to the expansion of public knowledge and understanding—a fundamental purpose of copyright. The decision is a strong affirmation of fair use and may allow businesses to take greater advantage of that copyright doctrine when dealing with facts, research, and information aggregation and analysis. The decision should also be of particular interest to Canadians,