Re: Authors, publishers, settle suit with Google

[Karl Bridges <kbridges@uvm.edu>]

Well, this is good for libraries if A) the licensing costs are 
reasonable and B)they provide MARC data.  I expect many libraries 
would prefer to integrate the books into their catalog and they 
would need that information -- rather than go through Google.

On the legal side, it seems complicated.  In many cases, the 
author's rights are in their long settled estates. Does this 
mean, for example, in order for Google to pay the royalties on 
out of copyright materials that these cases would have to be 
reopened in probate court to determine the disposition of the 
revenues?  Just determining who the heirs are to some long 
deceased author would seem to be a large problem in itself.

Karl Bridges
University of Vermont


Quoting "B.G. Sloan" <bgsloan2@yahoo.com>:

> The New York Times mentions an interesting twist on this settlement:
>
> "Libraries, universities, and other organizations will also be 
> able to purchase an institutional subscription, which will give 
> users the ability to access the full text of all the titles in 
> the Google Books index. This, depending on the pricing, could 
> turn out to be a revolutionary development for libraries."
>
> See:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2008/10/28/28readwriteweb-end_of_snippet_view_google_books.html
>
> Meanwhile, from another source:
>
> The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that "All public 
> libraries in the United States would be given free portals for 
> their patrons" (whatever that means). The Chronicle article 
> also reports some positive reactions from librarians involved 
> in the Google Book Search project:
>
> Article at:
>
> http://chronicle.com/free/2008/10/6010n.htm
>
> Bernie Sloan
> Sora Associates
> Bloomington, IN