The Yahoo-led project to scan books and library material [called the Open Content Alliance or OCA] and make them available online is on target, unlike the wrong-headed Google initiative that will lead to massive copyright violations. Despite a few minor problems with the Yahoo program, Google should learn from its competitor and follow the same rules....There are only a few drawbacks to the plan. First is that the material will be made available in Adobe Acrobat format, rather than as text. Acrobat is a notoriously finicky format, and the Acrobat reader has probably crashed more computers than anything this side of Windows. It's big, it's ugly, and it's a resource hog. People should have the option of viewing in plain text. Second is that all the work in the archive, regardless of copyright, will be made fully available as Acrobat files, so it can be easily printed out. This is great for public domain works, but not so great for copyrighted works. Copyright holders justifiably won't want their entire works made available this way, and few will probably want to participate. Yahoo should have a two-tiered program --- snippets for copyrighted works; full online access for the rest.
Comment. Three quick replies. (1) Gralla is hasty to conclude that Google's opt-out policy violates copyright. See my defense of it from last week's issue of SOAN. (2) I wholeheartedly share Gralla's preference for plain text over PDF. The fact that Adobe is a partner in OCA doesn't mean that OCA has to lock up the content in this annoying format. Users should have a plain-text option. (3) Gralla may be right that the full-text or nothing plan will lead many copyright holders to choose nothing. But the solution isn't to limit copyright holders to snippets. OCA can enlarge the menu and offer copyright holders full-text, snippets, or nothing. Many publishers will choose full-text, just as many publishers are volunteering their books to the Google Publisher program.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/06/2005 11:15:00 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.
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.
