Supreme Court Lets Google Books Fair Use Ruling Stand

The Supreme Court decided April 18 that it won’t review a ruling that Google’s mass digitization of books for full-text searching is a transformative use and not infringing (Authors Guild v. Google, Inc.review denied).

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that Google could load the texts into its database without the permission of copyright holders43 Med.L.Rptr. W-2, (10/27/15), See previous story, 10/19/15, 90 PTCJ 3567, 10/23/15, 84 U.S.L.W. 514, 10/20/15, 201 ptd 201, 10/19/15.

The Authors Guild asked the Supreme Court to review that ruling. It said that several appeals courts have set differing standards for deciding when a use is transformative.

It also suggested that the ...