In a ruling that’s sure to please Google Inc., an appeals court ruled Tuesday that a group of universities didn’t infringe copyrights by creating a digital library similar to the Google Books project.
In a 34-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of infringement claims by the Authors Guild against the universities and a digital library they created called HathiTrust. Affirming a 2012 decision by recently deceased U.S. District Court Judge Harold Baer Jr. in Manhattan, the appeals court held that HathiTrust is protected by the fair use defense.
