Google wins case against authors over copying book extracts for online library

Johannesburg: A US Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Google by authors who have accused it of digitally copying millions of books for an online library without permission. US Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google`s argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books for an electronic database was a fair practice.

According to news24, the search giant said that making `snippets` of text available for online searches, constituted fair use. Chin said that in his view, Google Books provide significant public benefits. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals had in July found that Chin prematurely certified a class of authors without first evaluating the fair use defence, the report said. Chin had overseen the case as a trial judge, and kept jurisdiction after joining the 2nd Circuit.