Dan Carnevale, U. of Michigan Unveils Its Book-Scanning Contract With Google, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 20, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has released the details of the contract it signed with Google to digitize books and allow the texts to be searchable online. John P. Wilkin, an associate university librarian at Michigan, said the university made the contract available to give more "transparency" to the controversial partnership....The contract shows that the university is not making any money in the deal, Mr. Wilkin said, although Google is compensating the university for the costs of handling and transporting the books. "We try to ensure that there's as much information out there as possible to lay to rest any conspiracy theories," Mr. Wilkin said. "I hope that whoever thought that there was something lurking in the contract will find that it is very straightforward."...The contract says the agreement between the University of Michigan and Google must follow copyright law. "If at any time, either party becomes aware of copyright infringement under this agreement, that party shall inform the other as quickly as reasonably possible," the contract states. It continues: "If either party reasonably determines that a portion of the Selected Content that was previously thought to be in the public domain is actually subject to copyright, that party shall promptly notify the other party in a writing that particularly identifies the portion(s) and provides an explanation for why the portion(s) are believed to be subject to copyright."..."I'm sure we will grapple with the copyright issues for a while now," [Wilkin] said. "It's time to move on to the big interesting issues for what this means for higher education, for research libraries, and for an informed public."'
Related: See my take on whether the contract allows Michigan to offer open access to the public-domain books Google digitizes from the Michigan library.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/20/2005 10:33:00 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.
