The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that Google Books does not infringe the copyright protections of authors.
The court handed the technology giant a major victory over a series of authors who had sued over the decade-old project, in which Google makes digital copies of books picked out by major libraries and allows the public to view snippets online.
{mosads}The three-judge panel affirmed a lower court’s decision from 2013 that found Google’s project falls within the limits of fair use because the work is meaningfully transformed and does not offer the public a meaningful substitute to buying the book.
According to reports, Google had estimated it could owe billions if it lost the case.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jim Bouton, author of “Ball Four”; Betty Miles, author of “The Trouble with Thirteen”; and Joseph Goulden, author of “The Superlawyers.”