I’m inclined to agree with Octavio’s post siding with Google, which is now free to move ahead with its book digitization project. According to the Court of Appeals, whose decision was upheld by the US Supreme Court a few days ago (see 15-849, pg. 12), the Google Books project not only passes the fair use test, it is also “transformative” because it increases awareness of a book while offering only portions of the work for viewing online. In other words, an author’s work can be exposed to the millions and millions of Google users that author would not otherwise have had access to, but the scanned material would not be a substitute for entire book.
This case is relevant to us because of Google Books’ outreach to libraries. University libraries such as Stanford and Harvard are already adding their collections to Google’s Library Project. Plus Google gives the library the option to exclude titles from scanning. The company responds to its critics and plaintiffs by saying “We believe a tool that can open up the millions of pages in the world's books can help remove the barriers between people and information and benefit the publishing community at the same time.” To me that sounds similar to one of the core values of a library, which is to give people access to information. I see it as a force for good.
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