In late 2004, Google announced as part of its Library Project that it would scan millions of books into a searchable online database accessible to anyone using Google Book Search (http://books.google.com). In response, the US Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) sued Google, claiming its book scanning is "massive copyright infringement." Google says its indexing is a legitimate fair use. As in all such discussions, two different questions arise: What does the law say? What would be good public policy?
Index Terms:
Google, indexing, fair use, copyright infringement
Citation:
Michael Lesk, "Should Indexing Be Fair Use? The Battle over Google Book Search," IEEE Security and Privacy, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 80-83, Mar./Apr. 2006, doi:10.1109/MSP.2006.52