When the news went out that stated Google would scan books and put them online for searching, I knew that it wouldn't happen. At the time I thought to myself, "If the music industry goes after people who share music because the industry says they are losing money and it's stealing, why would the book publishers let Google do, essentially, the same thing?"
Well, here it is:
Association of American Publishers sues search giant for copyright
infringement from book-scanning project.
October 19, 2005
The Association of American Publishers filed suit against Google
Wednesday, charging the search giant with copyright infringement for
its plan to scan and digitize books for its Google Print online
library program.
The suit came after lengthy discussions between Google management and
the AAP broke down. The association had earlier lent its support to a
suit filed in September against Google by the Authors Guild, but the
lawsuit filed on Wednesday is a separate one.
In August, Google temporarily suspended the Google Print program until November after hearing complaints from publishers and authors alike (see Google to Library: Shush!).
Publishers had objected to the opt-out nature of the program, which
requires them to specify which books they don't want scanned in by
Google. On Tuesday, however, Google said it would expand the program
to eight countries in Europe (see Google Print Expands in Europe).
It means that Google will have the more advanced business model and that in 10 years they'll be selling it to the publishers.
But it also says a great deal about the insularity of the publishing market. So I'll take a swipe at academics and suggest they are to blame for keeping their information locked up...
Posted by: Cobb at October 19, 2005 10:48 PMthanks cobb.
Fortune magazine has an article about how the film industry is embracing bittorrent...i didn't get all the way through it. i was waiting for the hard copy. from what you're saying, it seems like publishers will find themselves in a situation akin to RIAA - a war they can't win.
the unanswered aspect of my question, though, is does this mean that i can, from a desktop in BK, download books at a google site in Denmark or Germany without worrying about the copywright issues laid down by US publishers?
Posted by: Temple3 at October 20, 2005 04:35 PMFrom what I understand about the Google venture, only a small portion of each publication will be downloadable for reading. While the publications themselves are contributions from public libraries, the AAP's argument is Google is using the content for commercial purposes. A similar argument was used against Napster, citing the network's central node was in fact a database of potential commercial value.
Posted by: MIB at October 21, 2005 05:00 PM
What does it mean that this service will be available in 8 nations in Europe?
Posted by: Temple3 at October 19, 2005 04:00 PM