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In summary: It was a fair use defense. To claim fair use, you must first admit to using copyrighted work. So the copyright itself isn't at issue here. The fair
by jarrett 13y ago
In summary: It was a fair use defense. To claim fair use, you must first admit to using copyrighted work. So the copyright itself isn't at issue here.
The fair use defense in this case rests in large part upon the fact that the works were excerpted, not reproduced in full. Per 17 U.S.C. § 107, one of the factors in evaluating a fair use defense is: "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole." That factor obviously weighed heavily in this case.
So, that is why Google actions are (for now) permissible under current copyright law.
- jarrett 13y agoAt the time I wrote the above comment, I had access only to summaries of the decision written by journalists. That's still all I can find, but some newer journalism contradicts what I read and parroted above. According to some, the judge didn't consider the "the amount and substantiality" to be a major factor, or if s/he did, s/he considered it to weigh slightly against Google. I guess I'll have to wait until I can find a copy of the decision to know for sure.