Google isn't backing down from its plan to scan every book in the world. On Tuesday, the search goliath rolled out stand-alone book search services in 14 countries. The same day, the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) became the latest publishers' organization to call Google's opt-out strategy backwards. The international book search services let users in the UK, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Pakistan, American Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Kenya, Jamaica, Mauritius and Uganda search English-language books via keyword, then read passages from the books where those words appear. As in the United States, searchers can search only books via domain-specific search services similar to print.google.com; results from books also may appear at the top of regular Web search results in their countries' versions of Google.com. In either case, the book search results will include links to online retailers to allow searchers to buy the books. However, the indexes of books may differ from country to country, in order to comply with local copyright laws, according to Jim Gerber, Google's director of content partnerships. "The index is slightly different because of our ability to show different works depending on what the rights holders allow us," he said. "Each country has different laws." Google offers three different kinds of book search results in the U.S. and abroad, Gerber said. For works in the public domain, searchers can essentially access the entire book online. For books under copyright, publishers can contract with the search service through its Google Publishers program to allow access to specified amounts of content.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/02/2005 10:03:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
