Google's digitization of 20 million books officially did not violate any copyright laws, according to an appeals court that agreed with a 2013 decision by Judge Denny Chin.

While Google does have a snippet feature, which shows a tiny portion of a book, as such, the court ruled that reading an entire book using this feature would be unrealistic.

"Snippet view at best and after a large commitment of manpower, produces discontinuous, tiny fragments, amounting in the aggregate to no more than 16 percent of a book," said the appeals court ruling.

The case was originally put forth by a group of authors who sued Google back in 2005. Google, however, argued that the effort to scan millions of books would actually result in better book sales, making it easier for readers to find books and introducing them to those that they otherwise might not have seen.

If the authors had prevailed in the case, Google might have faced billions of dollars in damages. The litigation, however, was first dismissed in 2013, which prompted the appeal.

According to Chin, the scanning of the tens of millions of books and the posting of online snippets, fell under "fair use," as per U.S. copyright law. The appeals panel said that, while the case did "test the boundaries of fair use," it ultimately did fall under the law.

"Today's decision underlines what people who use the service tell us: Google Books gives them a useful and easy way to find books they want to read and buy, while at the same time benefiting copyright holders," said Aaron Stein, a Google spokesperson, in an interview with Reuters.

In the decision, the judge ruled that it really didn't matter what Google's motivation for scanning the 20 million books was, and that, despite the fact that Google probably made quite a profit from the project, that doesn't affect the fact that it's still legal.

The Authors Guild has not made any comments regarding the case.

Via: Reuters