"Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers
and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all
books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers find
new readers."
"We're trying to make offline information like
books searchable and available online. That's a natural next step as part of
Google's mission."
December 2003
Google launches an
experimental program called Google Print that indexes excerpts of popular
books.
Google itself is hosting the
excerpts.
Publishers participating in
the program have to grant permission to Google to include book content. A
range of publishers are taking part, including major houses like Dell, Knopf
and Random House.
Established publishers,
authors, or agents can use a contact form to be considered for inclusion in
the program.
Nothing is controversial
about that program in terms of copyright issues.
Matches from Google Print
show up in regular search results.
The University of Michigan
plans to scan seven million titles over a six year period using a
non-destructive scanning technology that Google has developed.
Harvard allows Google to
digitize 40.000 titles.
"In-copyright" books: Searchers will only see a few sentences of text
around the search term along with bibliographic info and links to purchase
the actual book.
"Out-of copyright material": Searchers will see the full text, though
printing will be disabled when viewing this content.
„Does Google or the library profit when I buy a book from a Google
Print page? – On Google Print pages we offer links to popular booksellers
where you can buy the book and, in the case of out of print books, we offer
links to used booksellers. These links aren't paid for by those sites, nor
does Google or any library benefit if you buy something from one of these
retailers.“
Google Inc., Library Project – Common Questions
Quint,
Barbara,
Google’s Library Project: Questions, Questions, Questions(e.g.
How will Google handle duplicates between the libraries?, What
impact could this project have on current digitization projects? Will
librarians be threatened by the new development?)
February 2005
France's national library (Bibliothèque
nationale de France) is concerned with Google's ambitious program to
digitize library materials from several large libraries "favouring
Anglo-Saxon ideas and the English language."
French President Jacques
Chirac vows to launch a new "counter-offensive" against American cultural
domination, enlisting the support of the British, German and Spanish
governments in a multi-million euro bid to put the whole of European
literature online.
March 2005
Broad debate about Google
Print and copyright law.
Sally Morris, chief
executive of the Association of Learned and Professional Society
Publishers—an international association of over 300 not-for-profit
publishers: “The law does not permit wholesale copying (which is what
digitisation is) by a commercial organisation of works that are still in
copyright. It is also illegal to make those works available digitally once
they have been copied... Google needs to obtain permission from publishers
before using their work."
April 2005
France, Germany, Hungary,
Italy, Poland and Spain send a letter signed by their leaders asking EU
President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso to coordinate the effort of creating an online repository of
European literature. The letter came after the national libraries of 19
European nations agreed to support the plan as well: "The leaders of the
undersigned national libraries wish to support the initiative of Europe's
leaders aimed at a large and organised digitisation of the works belonging
to our continent's heritage," the heads of the libraries wrote in a
statement carried by the Associated Press. "Such a move needs a tight
coordination of national ambitions at EU level to decide on the selection of
works."
Europe's less flexible fair
use principles make unlicensed copying of protected works much riskier in
Europe than in the USA (That's also the reason why Google's deal with Oxford
University is limited to books already in the public domain).
May 2005
The
Association of American University Presses writes a letter to Google
expressing their concerns about the Google Library
program: Google's plan entails a "broad sweeping violation of the Copyright
Act" with the potential for "serious financial damages to the members" of
the association.
Google asserts the right to
go through with its plan under the fair use provision of the Copyright Act,
17 U.S.C. § 107.
June 2005
Association of American
Publishers sends a letter to Google requesting at least a six month
moratorium on scanning copyrighted library materials and a meeting between
top Google executives and leaders of the publishing group.
