[INDOLOGY] Libraries' online books database protected under 'fair use', court rules

[Dominik Wujastyk]

----
*Libraries' online books database protected under 'fair use', court rules*
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/libraries-online-database-books-copyright>
// *The Guardian World News*
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/libraries-online-database-books-copyright>

US appeals court rejects arguments by authors' groups
Court rules database did not violate copyright protections

Universities and research libraries that created a searchable online
database for millions of books did not violate copyright protections
belonging to authors whose works were scanned, a US appeals court ruled on
Tuesday.

Rejecting an appeal by authors' groups, the 2nd US circuit court of appeals
in New York said the HathiTrust Digital Library, which began in 2008 and
has scanned more than 10m works, constituted a "fair use" of copyrighted
works.

The library has 80 member institutions including Cornell University,
Indiana University, the University of California at Berkeley, the
University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin, all of which were
named as defendants.

It allows users to search for page numbers where specific text can be
found, though they cannot see text from the books themselves unless
authorized by copyright holders.

Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, circuit judge Barrington Parker
said the database did not simply reproduce the books but offered a
"transformative use" of them.

"By enabling fulltext search, the HDL adds to the original something new
with a different purpose and a different character," Parker wrote.

The court also said the authors had to show how the library harmed them
economically, because the search function is not a substitute for the books
themselves.

A lawyer for the authors did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.

Continue reading...
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/libraries-online-database-books-copyright>
----

Shared via *my feedly reader* <http://feedly.com>

Dominik Wujastyk, from Android phone.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20140611/7337388e/attachment.htm>