Posted on 10/15/2006 8:27:38 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
The Association of American Publishers has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging the Internet company's plans to scan and digitally distribute the text of major library collections would violate copyright protections. The group filed suit after lengthy discussions with Google's management about the company's Print Library Project broke down, the AAP said on Wednesday. As part of the project, Google is working to scan all or parts of the book collections of the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, the New York Public Library and Oxford University. It plans to let people search the texts. The company also intends to sell advertisements related to such searches.
"The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights," AAP President and former Colorado Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder said in a statement. "While authors and publishers know how useful Google's search engine can be and think the Print Library could be an excellent resource, the bottom line is that under its current plan, Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers." The AAP suit follows a similar action by the Authors Guild, which sued Google last month over the library project. Other groups, including the Association of American University Presses, have also criticized the book-scanning plan. Google has defended itself, saying the project is fully consistent with the fair-use doctrine under U.S. copyright law, which allows for excerpts in book reviews. The company said in August, however, that it would temporarily halt the project to respond to concerns. It plans to resume the project on Nov. 1, AAP said.
The AAP suit seeks a declaration by the court that Google commits infringement when it scans entire books covered by copyright and a court order preventing Google from doing so without permission from copyright owners. The group filed the suit on behalf of McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster, and John Wiley & Sons. "Google Print is a historic effort to make millions of books easier for people to find and buy. Creating an easy-to-use index of books is fair use under copyright law and supports the purpose of copyright: to increase the awareness and sales of books directly benefiting copyright holders," said David Drummond, Google's vice president of corporate development and general counsel. "This short-sighted attempt to block Google Print works counter to the interests of not just the world's readers, but also the world's authors and publishers."
And 98% of the lawsuits coming will target Americans...
Unless renewed, aren't book copyrights only good for about 70 years?
I am wondering if someone can provide some reliable information as to what Google is facing with this? I can't believe they have bought this liability.
google: "All you stuff does belong to us".
I predict Google will win. They are knowledgeable about the legal protections available to online service providers.
Ha ha ha. How true.
Did Patricia Schroeder start crying in the middle of saying that?
No telling. However, she does have a point. I wouldn't want my copyrighted work usurped by Google without permission, IMHO.
That's something sometimes heard before someone loses a case.
QUESTION: "Hey, what's the difference between a parasite, a lawyer and google?"
ANSWER: "Nothing".
Ask all the US military retirees about former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder.
Usurped, how? They aren't distributing the contents of the works, simply returning search results. It's nothing a librarian couldn't in principle do over the phone; it's just faster and more efficient.
Except that a librarian wouldn't read you the book over the phone. The google project is basically putting all books online, that is a violation of the law. You can already use the internet to find books now.
Isn't it already settled case law that anyone can create an index to a copyrighted book and sell it without royalty payments to the publisher?
Google, and not by using any legal arguments. Google simply has to ask each publisher whether they want their books indexed or not. If they say no, then their books won't get indexed...but neither will any of their corporate sites, nor any other site that links to theirs. To anyone who uses Google as their primary search engine, which is to say most people, that publisher will effectively be off the internet.
No. You can't view the entire content of the work. You can only view a part of the sentence that contains the search term.
When you click on a search result for a book from the Library Project, you'll see the Snippet View which, like a card catalog, shows you information about the book plus a few snippets – a few sentences of your search term in context. You may also see the Sample Pages View if the publisher or author has given us permission or the Full Book View if the book is out of copyright. In all cases, you'll see 'Buy this Book' links that lead directly to online bookstores where you can buy the book.
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