Publishers sue Google over book search project

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Fair Use Is Determained by The Courts

There is no set limit on how much can be copied. In some cases the whole thing can be copied in other instances even a snippet as small as 3 words is not Fair Use.

Also if they make money off of it or not does not make it fair use either.

There is a four factor test, in which all four factors are considered against each other, the courts use in order to determain fair use;

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

All four factors must be considered in order to determain fair use. Also just becuase it is commercial does not mean it is not fair use. 2Live Crew copied the entire lyrics of Pretty Woman and it was found to be fair use by the courts. In this case Google will argue its use increases the value of the market as it exposes more people to the work, they are only giving users snippets, and in at least the beta they are not showing ads.

Most IP Lawyers will tell you that Fair Use is an Affermitive defense in copyright as the court decides if your use is fair or not when you are infront of them- meaning you must go to court in order to have it be deemed fair use and it is done on a case by case basis.

In any case if you don't want to be sued you should always ask first before copying any portion of any copyrighted work.

These are not regular publishers that is sueing Google but rather the Assoc of Academic Presses. The Academic presses are suing as must people do not purchase academic texts to read whole or even use substantial portions of the text. Typically only small sections are used and typically only to quote a section to support a larger argument. In the case of Academic works this Google project can be harmful to the market.

Posted by: Ed_Meyers   Posted on: 10/19/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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