The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a copyright infringement case against Google for its now 12-year-old effort to scan books and allow people to search them online.

The Supreme Court, without comment, rejected an appeal by the Authors Guild to overturn an October 2015 appeals court ruling finding that the massive Google books program falls under so-called fair use exemptions to copyright protections.

Fair use allows limited reuse of copyright-protected works for criticism, parodies, education and other purposes. Fair use also allows for people to transform the original content into a new type of work, and that transformation of the printed books was part of Google’s argument in this case.

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