Jeffrey Young, Publishing Groups Say Google's Library-Scanning Effort May Violate Copyright Laws, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 7, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'Some publishing groups say that Google's ambitious project to scan millions of library volumes and make them searchable could run afoul of copyright laws, and that Google should get permission from publishers before proceeding....Google said that it would begin by scanning works that are in the public domain and that the full texts of those books would be accessible online through its popular search engine. But the company also plans to scan copyrighted books in some of the libraries. The search engine will not give users the full texts of those volumes, but will provide up to three short excerpts, each consisting of only a few lines of text in which a search term appears. Google officials say that such limited use will not violate copyright law. But some publishing-industry officials say that even scanning a book and offering brief excerpts without the publishers' permission could violate copyright because scanning the book would represent a reproduction of the work, and the copying would have been done by a commercial entity rather than the library that purchased the book....Steve Langdon, a spokesman for Google, said in an e-mail interview that the company "respects the rights of copyright holders and the tremendous creative effort of authors...In every case Google's presentation of the works to the public will keep authors and publishers in mind and be well within the bounds of copyright law," he said....Sally C.L. Morris, chief executive of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, said in an interview on Friday that she had contacted Google officials last week to raise the concern that Google's plans to scan some material might violate the rights of academic publishers. She said she had asked for more information about the company's plans. "They seem to be certain that what they're doing is OK under copyright law, but I can't understand how they think so," she said...."It's a matter of legal principle," she said, noting that many publishers were likely to agree to Google's arrangement if approached. "But they haven't been asked, and so they haven't had the opportunity to say yes or no." '
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/07/2005 09:49:00 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.
