Google Books case illustrates the four factors of fair use

In November 2013, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin hastened the end of years of legal wrangling over the legality of Google’s scanning and indexing of copyrighted works for its Google Books project. In Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google Inc., SDNY, No. 05 Civ. 8136 (DC), Judge Chin ruled that Google’s work amounted to “fair use” of the books.

“Fair use” is an exception to a copyright holder’s exclusive right to the use of a protected work. The United States Code specifies ...

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