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The US' Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) has welcomed Judge Harold Baer's decision saying that the HathiTrust Digital Library's (HDL) use of digitised works is a fair use permitted under the Copyright Act. Baer's ruling not only allows HathiTrust to continue serving scholars and the print disabled, it also provides helpful guidance on how future library services can comply with copyright law, according to LCA.

HDL is operated by a consortium of universities, including the University of Michigan, the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Cornell University. Many of the 10 million digital volumes in HDL were provided by Google in exchange for the universities' allowing the company to scan books in their collections for the Google Library Project.

The Library Project is the subject of two separate cases, one of which was settled earlier this month. In the case which Judge Baer decided, HathiTrust was sued by the Authors Guild (AG) and several other authors' associations in 2011. HDL is used in three ways: full-text searches, preservation, and access for people with print disabilities.

In his decision, Baer cited the two amicus briefs that LCA filed in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust. First, when rejecting the AG's contention that the library exceptions in section 108 somehow limit the fair use privilege in section 107, Baer stated that the LCA brief "further convince[s] me that fair use is available as a defense for the Defendants." Then, when balancing the fair use factors, he observed that the LCA brief "further confirm[s] that the underlying rationale of copyright law is enhanced by the HDL."

Judge Baer also made various holdings, including that an association does not have standing under the Copyright Act to bring infringement suits on behalf of its members. Another holding states that the creation of a search index is a transformative use under the first fair use factor, and that the use of digital copies to facilitate access for the print disabled is also transformative.