US Circuit Judge Denny Chin ruled in favor of Google in their long drawn out suit with the Author’s Guild over copyright and the Google Books project. Judge Chin cited Fair Use as the primary reason for his ruling. He also emphasized the difference between commercial and non-commercial use of works.
Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits by Jeff John Roberts (posted on gigaom.com on November 14, 2013)
I hope that this sets a tone for the importance and relevancy of Fair Use in this country’s attempts to wrangle and reform copyright law. The ruling establishes the public good as a crucial consideration, which addresses one of my major concerns over attempts to rewrite copyright law.
This ruling could prove to be a major influence for libraries and other institutions which benefit the public. I’m quite happy with this result.
John the Librarian 