The Library Copyright Alliance, which is comprised of the American Library Association, the Association of College & Research Libraries, and the Association of Research Libraries, welcomes Judge Denny Chin's decision to protect the search database that allows the public to search more than 20 million books. In his dismissal of the case, Judge Chin enumerated the public benefits of Google Book Search by calling the project transformative and a fair use under the copyright law.
Barbara Stripling, president of the American Library Association, said that ALA applauds the decision to dismiss the long running Google Books case. This ruling furthers the purpose of copyright by recognising that Google's Book search is a transformative fair use that advances research and learning.
According to Carol Pitts Diedrichs, president of the Association of Research Libraries, this decision, along with the decision by Judge Baer in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, makes clear that fair use permits mass digitisation of books for purposes that advance the arts and sciences, such as search, preservation, and access for the print-disabled.
Also Dawes, president of the Association of College & Research Libraries said that Google Book search also makes searchable literally millions of books by students and others with visual disabilities.
In 2005, the Authors Guild sued Google over the scanning of over 20 million library books from several research libraries without the prior authorisation of rights holders. The purpose of the digitisation project was to create a searchable index of books that would allow key word searching of the collections of major research libraries. The searchable index is accessible to the public who would not otherwise be able to search research collections.
The District Court ruling bodes well for libraries, scholars, and researchers in the pending appeal of Authors Guild v. HathiTrust. Judge Chin agreed with Judge Baer's fair use analysis in the HathiTrust case, indicating that the result in the Google case is compatible with the HathiTrust decision and suggesting a favorable decision on appeal.
