Google asked a US court Friday to dismiss a lawsuit over the Internet giant’s massive book-scanning project, saying the effort is “not a substitute” for books themselves.

In an effort to end the long-running litigation, the US tech giant offered its defense by arguing that its Google Books project should be considered “fair use” under copyright law.

“Google Books gives people a new and more efficient way to find books relevant to their interests,” the company said in its argument to dismiss the case in a New York federal court.

“The tool is not a substitute for the books themselves — readers still must buy a book from a store or borrow it from a library to read it. Rather, Google Books is an important advance on the card-catalogue method of finding books.”

Google said the effort is beneficial to readers, authors and the public.

“Readers benefit by being able to find relevant books,” Google argued. “Authors benefit because their books can be more readily found, purchased, and read. The public benefits from the increase of knowledge that results.”