In win for libraries, court rules database of Google-scanned books is “fair use” by Jeff John Roberts.
From the post:
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the Hathi Trust, a searchable collection of digital books controlled by university libraries, does not violate copyright, and that the libraries can continue to make copies for digitally-impaired readers.
The decision is a setback for the Authors Guild and for other groups of copyright holders who joined the lawsuit to shut down the Hathi Trust’s operations. By contrast, it is a victory for many scholars and librarians who regard the database as an invaluable repository of knowledge.
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Of particular interest to those of us interested in creating topic maps based upon currently copyrighted material:
Do not attempt work on copyrighted material without local legal advice on your particular case, but be aware the court has held:
the creation of a full-text searchable database is a quintessentially transformative use…
of a copyrighted text.
Excellent!