Google's Cache Ruled Fair Use

jbarr writes "An EFF Article states that: 'A district court in Nevada has ruled that the Google Cache is a fair use ... the Google Cache feature does not violate copyright law.' Notable is the basis that 'The Google Cache qualifies for the DMCA's 512(b) caching 'safe harbor' for online service providers.'" From the article: "The district court found that Mr. Field 'attempted to manufacture a claim for copyright infringement against Google in hopes of making money from Google's standard [caching] practice.' Google responded that its Google Cache feature, which allows Google users to link to an archival copy of websites indexed by Google, does not violate copyright law."

May be a hint of how the book scanning will go.

[Godeke]

After reading the actual opinion that granted summary judgement, if this same logic is applied to the scanning and offering of search on "real world" materials, Google may be able to withstand lawsuits on the book scanning effort quite well. There are some differences that could create a different outcome, but this outcome was 100% favorable to Google and the idea of indexing and caching of materials to allow such search and reference was solidly defended by the judge.

Re:Good news

[T-Ranger]

HTTP explicitly allows for caches - its part of the protocol. Associated standards have been published to restrict what can be cached, and indexed by e.g. search engines.

You can no more complain that something is caching, or indexing, your pages you have published with HTTP, then you can complain that someone is accessing them at all.

Re:A new search engine is in order

[Anonymous Coward]

Google's "cooperation" was purely a mean joke on the liars, er, lawyers. They basically rubbed the shitbag^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hattorneys' noses in poo by linking to the complaint at the bottom, which included all of the URLs which were being contested - and the shitbag lawyers had no recourse. :)

It'd be akin to complaining about references to pornography being available to all at the library of congress because copyrights have been filed on pornographic photos, stories, articles, films, etc. - "OMFG the US Gubbment is making Porn available to children! Call Dubya! Think of the children!"