Library Copyright Alliance files second amicus brief in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust

On July 6, 2012, members of the Library Copyright Alliance (the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries and Association of College and Research Libraries), together with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed a friend of the court brief in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, urging a federal court to find that the fair use doctrine permitted the creation of a valuable digital library. The brief argues four main points: that the HathiTrust Digital Library is serving the public interest, that its tremendous public benefit tilts the analysis firmly in favor of fair use, that a legislative "fix" is both unnecessary and unworkable, and that the plaintiffs helped foster public reliance on the HathiTrust project, which the public should not be deprived of now