The Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust could buttress Google's fair use defense in the Google Books litigation because it holds that digitizing books to enable online search is a fair use. However, some experts believe the two cases are easily distinguishable.

“Here [in HathiTrust] we are talking about non-profit libraries, not the huge multinational corporation that is Google,” says Brad Newberg, a partner at Reed Smith. “Google is making a commercial use, seeking to drive more people to Google. And Google is showing snippets of text [in its search results], unlike here.”

Other experts assert the similarities of the two cases far outweigh the differences. Both Google Books and HathiTrust have “the same underlying notion that this [online search] is a very valuable service, and there is an absence of any harm to authors. So this [HathiTrust] case will be very persuasive,” says Jonathan Band, a copyright attorney who represented amicus the American Library Association in HathiTrust.

The Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust could buttress Google's fair use defense in the Google Books litigation because it holds that digitizing books to enable online search is a fair use. However, some experts believe the two cases are easily distinguishable.

“Here [in HathiTrust] we are talking about non-profit libraries, not the huge multinational corporation that is Google,” says Brad Newberg, a partner at Reed Smith.Google is making a commercial use, seeking to drive more people to Google. And Google is showing snippets of text [in its search results], unlike here.”

Other experts assert the similarities of the two cases far outweigh the differences. Both Google Books and HathiTrust have “the same underlying notion that this [online search] is a very valuable service, and there is an absence of any harm to authors. So this [HathiTrust] case will be very persuasive,” says Jonathan Band, a copyright attorney who represented amicus the American Library Association in HathiTrust.