After Long Battle, Google Books Ruled "Fair Use"

When last we looked in on the Google Books dispute, the Second Circuit had overturned class certification in the suit, brought by the Authors Guild and multiple individual authors, on the basis that the District Court first should have resolved Google's fair use defense, which could moot the class certification issue.  Last week Judge Denny Chin, still presiding over the Google Books dispute by designation, ruled that the copying envisioned by the Google Books project was protected under the fair use doctrine.

As we have reported, Google Books is an ambitious web project that aims to scan, digitize and distribute "every book ever written" and make the contents searchable.  Where Google has the rights to do so through its "Partner Program," books are available for viewing in whole or in part.  Otherwise, through its "Library Project," Google Books allows full-text searching for in-print and out-of-print books, and provides excerpts of content, called "snippets," all