2009-05-08
Google Book Search
For a number of years ago, Google announced that they intended to scan the books that on the basis of age were exempt from copyright. To this end they concluded an agreement with a number of U.S. libraries that would provide the documents. For some time, Google has also scanned books that are copyrighted, but which has gone out of print. This triggered U.S. writers and Authors Guild to sue Google some two years ago. Now, however, they have reached a deal that gives Google the right to publish these books on the Internet. And as a payment they will compensate the authors with a lump sum and, by extension, with 63% of the sales profit. As consumers we are supposed to buy the book and get digital access to it, but only through Google. We will not be able to download the book to our own computer or to some other device and only be able to access it via Google's electronic bookshelf. Concerns are that this would implicate a de facto monopoly position for Google and infringe on our privacy.
Google has also with this agreement a strong position when they say that they will scan all the books in the world from countries that has ratified the Bern Convention. Authors and publishers from the convention countries had to notify Google before May 5, 2009 if they wanted to decline or participate in the cooperation. A federal court in the U.S. has now extended the response time to September 4, 2009, thus giving interested parties a little better position to scrutinize the tricky text. In Europe, the text has aroused great concern among authors and publishers. Next week for example the German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann will raise the issue on the EU ministerial meeting. In Germany by the way, over 1300 authors have signed the so called Heidelberg appall, in which they conclude that "Copyright is a victim of massive attack and is permanently under threat." Similarly in the UK and Sweden, authors and publishers have reacted against what they perceive as infringing their copyright.
As much else in this world Google Book Search has both good and bad things to offer us. There are already over 7 million titles registered there and many of them can be read in full text. While other titles only give access to limited parts of the text. For the person interested in books the service offers great opportunities to read e. g. the content description and the preface of books. Why not look yourself!
- Kent Pettersson, Library Infocenter Ronneby
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