Jun 10, 2014, 15:49 pm
from the because-book-scanning-is-fair-use dept
The Authors Guild simply won't give up on its quixotic attack on modern technology. Even after losing both of its book scanning cases -- one against the Hathitrust (a collection of university libraries) and the other against Google -- it appealed both rulings. This morning, the ruling in the first of those cases, the Hathitrust one, came out, and it pretty much demolished the Authors Guild's arguments, finding, yet again, that book scanning like this is clearly fair use, though for slightly different reasons than the lower court. But there is plenty of useful stuff in the ruling. First, the court explored whether having a full-text searchable database of all text is fair use and found overwhelming support for that idea:
In other words, copying all the words in books to create that searchable database is transformative fair use. In fact, the court notes that it "adds a great deal more to the copyrighted works at issue than" other transformative uses that the same court has approved.........
SOURCE techdirt
The Authors Guild simply won't give up on its quixotic attack on modern technology. Even after losing both of its book scanning cases -- one against the Hathitrust (a collection of university libraries) and the other against Google -- it appealed both rulings. This morning, the ruling in the first of those cases, the Hathitrust one, came out, and it pretty much demolished the Authors Guild's arguments, finding, yet again, that book scanning like this is clearly fair use, though for slightly different reasons than the lower court. But there is plenty of useful stuff in the ruling. First, the court explored whether having a full-text searchable database of all text is fair use and found overwhelming support for that idea:
Quote:Turning to the first factor, we conclude that the creation of a full-text searchable database is a quintessentially transformative use. ... [T]he result of a word search is different in purpose, character, expression, meaning, and message from the page (and the book) from which it is drawn. Indeed, we can discern little or no resemblance between the original text and the results of the HDL full-text search.
There is no evidence that the Authors write with the purpose of enabling text searches of their books. Consequently, the full-text search function does not “supersede[] the objects [or purposes] of the original creation,” ... The HDL does not “merely repackage[] or republish[] the original[s],” ... or merely recast “an original work into a new mode of presentation,” .... Instead, by enabling full‐text search, the HDL adds to the original something new with a different purpose and a different character.
In other words, copying all the words in books to create that searchable database is transformative fair use. In fact, the court notes that it "adds a great deal more to the copyrighted works at issue than" other transformative uses that the same court has approved.........
SOURCE techdirt