In an opinion about Internet search not directly transferable to the book search cases, a district court has given Google a fair use right to do whatever they want, and then some. See the copies at Lessig's or the EFF blog.
I don't have time right now to discuss this opinion in detail, but hope to be able to come back to it.
Only one first reaction: The court's analysis in this case is based on the fact that the content in question was without any economic value whatsoever and served to anyone interested free of charge. The Google book search cases are different in both respects.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at January 26, 2006 02:52 PM