MESSAGE
| DATE | 2005-08-14 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Fair Use and Google
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc., responding to an outcry by
publishers, has temporarily scaled back plans to make the full text of
copyrighted books in five of the world's great libraries searchable via
the Internet.
Google, the world's most popular way of searching the Internet, said it
will allow copyright holders who contact the company to withhold books
from the project, according to Adam Smith, program manager of the Google
Print program.
For three months, Google will stop scanning copyrighted books to allow
owners to inform the company of objections.
"Any and all copyright holders ... can tell us which books they'd prefer
that we not scan if we find them in a library," Adam Smith, the product
manager of Google Print, said in a statement on Google's corporate Web
site.
Nonetheless, Google is moving ahead with its ambitious project to work
with publishers and librarians to scan books in the public domain that
are not covered by copyright, he said.
Libraries participating in the program include Oxford University,
Harvard University, the New York Public Library, Stanford University and
the University of Michigan.
The Google spokesman declined to comment on how many book titles are now
searchable on the Google Print site, which works by typing the name of
an author, a book title or a word or phrase into a Web search box at
http://print.google.com/.
Google is working with publishers large and small to encourage them to
make their books searchable. In exchange, Google can create distinct
pages for each book with advertising and links to retailers. As a
further inducement, publishers can create a direct sales link to
consumers for their titles.
"We are really excited about the scope of this program and the good it
will do for the world," Smith said in a telephone interview. Google said
that virtually all major U.S. and U.K. publishers are participating, at
least in part, in Google Print.
Critics of the program said that Google's plan to allow copyright
holders to indicate whether they wish to opt out of the Google Print
project switches the burden of upholding copyright from infringers to
the copyright holders.
"This really stands copyright law on its head," Patricia Schroeder,
president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers,
said in a phone interview. "There are hundreds of years of tradition
that go the other way." Continued ...
"Google's announcement does nothing to relieve the publishing industry's
concerns," said Schroeder, a former congresswoman from Colorado.
Smith replied that Google is extending the logic of searching for online
materials to printed books to make them more accessible.
"What we are doing here is legal under the principles of fair use," he
said.
Schroeder said her organization and Google had been unable to come to
terms on a proposal to address the concerns of copyright holders.
Smith said Google was continuing to talk with organizations of
publishers, authors and other interested parties to strike a balance
between the interests of publishers and readers.
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