The benefit to society in having a free, fully searchable collection of millions of books and journals is huge -- so huge that we should all root for Google to prevail. But the Mountain View search giant also needs to work harder at finding common ground with authors and book publishers who aren't happy about being Googled. It's the right thing to do. What's more, it might not be possible to complete the program with authors and publishers standing in the way....Google is getting value from the Library Project because the search pages would ultimately display ads along the side. Authors and publishers therefore deserve compensation, [Paul] Aiken [Executive Director of the Authors Guild] argues. I disagree, as do many legal experts. Copyright law supports so-called "transformative" efforts, where someone seeks to profit from fair use. A book review in this newspaper, after all, contributes to our goal of attracting readers who also look at our advertising.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/02/2005 09:45:00 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.
