Google Answers Complaints About Project to Scan Millions of Books, but Publishers Are Not Won Over

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Google Answers Complaints About Project to Scan Millions of Books, but
Publishers Are Not Won Over By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
Chronicle of Higher Education
Friday, August 12, 2005

*  RESPONDING TO CONCERNS from several academic and commercial 
   publishers, Google has made minor adjustments to its vast 
   project to scan library books, and Google officials say they 
   will not scan any copyrighted books until November, while 
   publishers consider the new policies.

   --> SEE http://chronicle.com/free/2005/08/2005081201t.htm

Google officials say they will make sure they do not scan any book held by 
a library if the book's publisher asks that the book not be scanned. In 
the past, Google has said that it would scan entire library collections 
and remove book scans after the fact only if a publisher sought the 
removal of a book from Google's online index.

Google's Library Project, announced in December, involves five major 
libraries that have agreed to let the search company scan some or all of 
their books and include the full texts in its search index. The company 
plans to allow users to see the complete texts of books that are in the 
public domain, but to show only short excerpts from books that are still 
under copyright.

In a related project, Google has forged deals with publishers in which the 
publishers allow Google to index the full text of some of their books in 
exchange for a cut of any advertising revenue.

In recent months, several publishers have complained to Google that the 
library-scanning project violates copyright, even if Google displays only 
snippets of a book. According to some publishers, even making a digital 
copy of a book to create an index requires the permission of the book's 
copyright holder. Google officials argue that their project is legal under 
the principle of fair use.

Adam M. Smith, a senior business-product manager at Google, said on 
Thursday that the company had changed its policy in response to complaints 
by publishers in meetings.

[SNIP]


Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone 704 687-2825