Google's Library Project Found to be a Fair Use

Google's Library Project offers digital versions of books sent to the project by libraries. Google has not secured permission to use these works by the copyright holders; however, only certain portions or "snippets" of each of the works is viewable to the users of the project.  Once a search term is entered, the service provides the user with a list of books containing the search terms along with the frequency of those terms in each book.   The Author's Guild has been opposing this project for the past ten years and filed suit against Google for copyright infringement. In mid-October, the Second Circuit granted summary judgment for Google finding that the display of "snippets" constituted a fair use.