Google wins digital books lawsuit He said: "Google made unauthorised digital editions of nearly all the world's valuable copyright-protected literature and profits from displaying those works. Such mass digitisation and exploitation far exceeds the bounds of the fair use defence. Google began creating the library in 2004, after it agreed a deal with research libraries to digitise current and out-of-print works. This included works from Harvard University, Oxford University, Stanford University, and the New York Public Library. In a statement, Google said: "This has been a long road and we are absolutely delighted with today's judgement. As we have long said, Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalogue for the digital age. Google argued that authors, especially of obscure works, could benefit from the library, and that a case-by-case approach was needed to determine fair use. An intellectual property law professor who followed the case told Reuters it was a "big win for Google" James Grimmelmann, from the University of Maryland, said: "It blesses other search results that Google displays, such as news or images. It is also a good ruling for libraries and researchers, because the opinion recognises the public benefit of making books available.