The Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
755 F.3d 87 (2014)
Relevant factsFree
HathiTrust's (defendant) digital library, created by thirteen universities, allowed the public to keyword-search over three million books (returning only page numbers and occurrence counts, never text), gave print-disabled patrons full-text access, and provided replacement digital copies for lost or unreplaceable library originals; the Authors Guild and other author associations (plaintiffs) sued for copyright infringement, and the district court granted HathiTrust summary judgment on fair use.
IssueFree
Whether a work is transformative under a fair-use analysis if it adds something new to the copyrighted work, including changing the work's purpose or character.