Google has won an eight-year-long lawsuit over Google Books, reports the Financial Times – allowing them to freely display snippets of copyrighted content.
Google’s use of snippets from protected books are now protected under “fair use” provisions – because, according to the new ruling, it is “highly unlikely” that readers will be able to assemble enough snippets to make a book purchase unneccesary.
Google Books, the tech firm’s ambitious plan to index and scan all the world’s books, has thus far resulted in the digitalization of over 20 million library titles.
It has also become a focal point for media industry complaints that Google is profiting unfairly from copyrighted material.
