After an eight year battle and the scanning of more than 20 million books, a judge ruled in favor of Google’s ambitious project that aims to catalogue all books on a search engine.

Google began its operation by scanning books without seeking permission. The suit was brought in 2005 by authors and publishers seeking protection under copyright law.

However, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin ruled in favor of Google deeming that the use of book “snippets” constitutes fair use under copyright law. Chin wrote that the digitization of the works was “transformative,” giving the use new purpose of character, and could possibly boost book sales rather than negatively impact the market...

We talk with University of Chicago law professor Randal Picker regarding the ruling and what this means for future copyright law.

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