The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City ruled Friday, agreeing with a judge who concluded that the snippets that Google showed customers from its database did not violate copyright laws.

The Authors Guild and various authors had challenged Google, contending that the digital book project violated their rights.

Google Inc. has made digital copies of tens of millions of books from major libraries and established a publicly available search function.

The appeals court says Google's profit motivation does not in these circumstances justify denial of what is a fair use of the books' content.

Lawyers did not immediately return messages seeking comment.