October 12, 2012
On October 10, 2012 Judge Harold Baer, Jr. of the U.S. Southern District of New York court ruled in our favor on Authors Guild, Inc. et al. v. HathiTrust et al. We are pleased that the court has recognized the importance of the work that libraries are performing to preserve the scholarly record and provide information and services to communities of scholars. We continue to believe that digitization and preservation of the scholarly record provides important benefits to current and future scholarship.
Judge Baer’s statement in this ruling reflects our collective ongoing commitment to lawful uses of our digital library collection, a collection created from our many great print collections and the work of generations of librarians:
I cannot imagine a definition of fair use that would not encompass the transformative uses made by Defendants' MDP [Mass Digitization Project] and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals espoused by the ADA [Americans With Disabilities Act].
We thank the many institutions and scholars who have supported us in this case.
We will continue to invest in HathiTrust, and in our mission to contribute to the common good by collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge.