Google plans to expand its controversial Google Print book-scanning and digitizing program to eight European countries, as well as making books in several European languages searchable over the Internet. The company will open local-language sites as part of its digital library project in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, in languages such as French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish. Google was expected to make a formal announcement at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday....“They’ve actually had opposition in Europe as well as in the U.S., so they’ll keep facing it,” said Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com. “Then again, I have no doubt they also have publishers wanting to take part in the program, which is why they are expanding it.”...Some European publishers have also come on board, including Grupo Planeta and Grupo Anaya in Spain, De Boeck and Editions De L’Eclat in France, and Springer Science+Business Media in the Netherlands. Several large publishers in the United States are also participating, including Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Warner Books, according to USA Today, but other smaller publishers have opted out, including Rowman & Littlefield Publishing....Pat Schroeder, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said that in the United Kingdom, Google is only copying books in the public domain, and she believes that Google should exercise the same policy in the rest of Europe as well as the United States. “We think maybe we have educated them, and we just hope they will bring their education back to our shores,” said Ms. Schroeder, a former U.S. Congressional representative. She sees Google’s current policy in the U.S. as a violation of copyright. “Google is going in and copying a full work without permission,” she said. “They’re making two copies, and giving one to the library. They say they have the right to make a copy because they say they’re only releasing a snippet. Snippet is not a legal term. Google made it up. “If Google can go and copy what’s in the library without permission, then everybody can copy it without permission,” she added. “Google is making new copyright laws by themselves and exercising eminent domain. The last time I looked, they weren’t elected.”
Comment. Four notes to Pat Schroeder. (1) A snippet is a fair-use excerpt. The word doesn't have to be a legal term. The excerpt has to fall within fair-use guidelines. (2) If Google's copying and snippet-sharing are protected as fair use, then everybody really can do the same. (3) Google is taking a bold step whose legality is uncertain. But its legality will be decided by a court, not by Google. (4) Is it possible you didn't already know these things?
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/19/2005 12:05:00 PM.
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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
