Google claimed at the time it was protected by the "fair use" principle because its book search engine showed only short snippets of text for the books it had scanned without permission.

BBC: Judge delays Google books hearing

In October, 2004, without the permission of publishers and authors, Google announced that, through its Google Books program, it would scan every book ever published, and make portions of the scans available through its search engine.

NEWYORKER: Publish or Perish

When the first Harry Potter book appeared, in 1997, it was just a year before the universal search engine Google was launched.

NEWYORKER: The Information