SOCIAL WEB MEDIA
Google Book Search:
Copyright,Fair Use and
Access to Information
SOURCES
"Google and Its Enemies" - Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard 12/10/2007, Vol. 013, No. 13
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=14...
"About Google Books" http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
“Google Books is Not a Library” - Pamela Samuelson http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-samuelson/google-books-is-not-a-lib_b_317518.html
“Thumbnail Photos and Fair Use” - Dr. Fritz DolakJune 2005, Volume 3, Issue 2. ISSN 1545-777X
http://www.bsu.edu/library/article/0,1894,95111-6558-58973,00.html
“Copyright Office Assails Google’s Settlement on Digital Books” - Miguel Helft, New York Times, September 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/technology/internet/11books.html
1998 – Google formed
1996 – Google founders Page and Brin in graduate school – research project funded byStanford Digital Library Technologies Project
July 2004 Google started scanning and digitizing University of Michigan's library.
They eventually forged partnerships Stanford, Harvard, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the
New York Public Library.
Original plan: scan 15 million books now aims to scan 20 million - 32 million
The goal: create an indexed database which
would be freely available for use by the public.
Google Book Search ( books.google.com ) public launch in May 2005.
(scanning and indexing continues)
What does this cost Google?
"Microsoft is spending $2.5 million to scan 100,000 books; if that scale were to hold, Google might spend as much as $800 million."
-Jonathan V Last "Google and Its Enemies"
Google Book Search features ads in the browser frame
“Google's corporate philosophy is based on the model which brought them success: organizing
and giving away other people's content, creating space for advertisements in the process.” - Last
Compare Google Book Search model toApple's iTunes...
Compare Google Book Search model toApple's iTunes...
(pay per download vs ad-supported browsing)
“Google's corporate philosophy is based on the model which brought them success: organizing
and giving away other people's content, creating space for advertisements in the process.” - Last
Internet ArchiveProject Gutenberg
Other book digitization initiatives (commercial and otherwise):
Project Gutenberg (1971)
Amazon.com (for paid download)
HarperCollins making text of 20,000 books available for search engines, w/out fee. (Last)
Carnegie Mellon "Universal Library" Project/"Million Book Project"
China and India w/ the Library of Alexandria and some U.S. universitieshttp://www.archive.org/details/millionbooks
Concerns about Google Boojk Search:
pricing
privacy
cultural imperialism
copyright
Pricing
potential for high subscription fees for institutional use
“[...] Google [would eventually] have a de facto monopoly on out-of-print books. The DOJ has raised concerns that price-setting terms of the
GBS deal are anti-competitive.” Pamela Samuelson “Google Books is Not a Library”
Privacy
traditionally libraries have protected the privacy of their patrons
“Google has been unwilling to make meaningful commitments to protect user privacy.”
- Pamela Samuelson “Google Books is Not a Library”
Privacy
“When you enter a library, you can search for books without anyone tracking your queries, you can read whatever is available for as long as you want without anyone monitoring your intellectual privacy, and you can check books out knowing that the records of what you've checked out will be protected from disclosure by state laws and by librarian ethics obligations.”
Pamela Samuelson “Google Books is Not a Library”
Privacy
“Google has commercial incentives to store and process data about what you read, how long you read it, and what you read next, and then serve you ads that it thinks are appropriate given the searches you have just done.”
Pamela Samuelson “Google Books is Not a Library”
Cultural Imperialism
Concern that a large percentage of Google's program is dedicated to scanning books in
English. Reinforces power of English-speaking nations and cultures.
Copyright
Fair Use?
“In 1999 and again in 2002, the case of Kelly vs. Arriba Soft Corporation provided direction on the issue of "thumbnails" used on the Internet. Many consider the case to be a landmark case. It concluded that the use of thumbnails is a fair use of another person’s graphic, intellectual property under very strict and limited conditions. This interpretation of fair use, in regards to thumbnail images, applies when thumbnails are used in an indexing system.” - Dolak
“The consensus is that 125x100 pixels for landscape-sized images and 100x125 pixels for portrait-sized images should be used. The book covers used at Amazon.com are a good example of the use of this size of thumbnails. Google, on the other hand, has stretched the size to 150x150 pixels and they haven’t been sued yet.” - Dolak
Google Book Search 1) books in public domain (not subject to copyright)
2) books in copyright used by Google w/ permissions of publisher
3) a) books in copyright used w/out permissions of
publisher
b)books in copyright but rights holders are unknown (“orphan works”)
Google Book Search
Full ViewLimited Preview
Snippet ViewNo Preview Available
settlement
Google to pay 125 million
set up book registry
publishers can opt-out if they do not want the text of their books indexed
standard fee 63%
“In concert with Google, the registry would sell access to those books to individuals and libraries. The revenue would be split among Google, authors and publishers.”
“In essence, the proposed settlement would give Google a license to infringe first and ask questions later, under the imprimatur of the court,” Ms. Peters wrote in her prepared testimony.
“Copyright Office Assails Google’s Settlement on Digital Books”