Discuss the Authors Guild's lawsuit against Google with respect to Google's Library Project, and ...

Google's Library Project involved an effort by Google to scan all the books in several university and public libraries, and then make snippets and parts of the book available online without receiving permission from the publishers or paying royalties. Google said it would never show a full page, just relevant portions of a page in response to searches. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the large book publishers filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Google from implementing the Library Project. Google argued that the Library Project constituted fair use of publishers' copyrighted works because it only published snippets. Moreover, Google claimed that it was simply helping libraries do what they are intended to do, namely, lend books. Library lending is considered a fair use following an agreement in the late 1930s with publishers, and such lending was codified into the Copyright Act of 1976. Google claimed that helping libraries make books more available to the public was in the broader public interest, and extended existing rights of libraries to encourage book availability. In 2013, a federal court finally found in favor of Google without reservation by ruling that Google's scanning and making snippets of text available to the public was "fair use" under U.S. copyright law. The judge believed the project had a broad public purpose of making it easier for students, researchers, teachers, and the public to find books, while also preserving consideration for author and publisher rights. The Google project was "transformative" in the court's view, giving books a new character and purpose, making it easier to discover old books, and leading to increased sales. The Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that Google's Library Project was fair use, and the matter is settled from a legal perspective.