Should no one ever make money on public domain or orphan
works?
Many publishers are doing just fine selling Jane Austen
these
days in one form or another -- and we are glad of it, aren't
we?
Ann Okerson
****
Reading Bad News Between the Lines of Google Book Search
By ANDREA L. FOSTER
Mr. Brantley is executive director of the Digital Library
Federation, a group of 39 academic libraries and other
groups
promoting electronic resources. He wrote a blog post this
month
that complained about a possible settlement of a lawsuit
that
publishers and authors brought against Google. The
plaintiffs
charge that Google Book Search violates their rights since
vast
amounts of copyright-protected books are being copied
without
their permission. Citing a February 5, 2007, article by
Jeffrey
Toobin in The New Yorker, Mr. Brantley says the two sides
are
most likely to strike a deal in which publishers, authors,
and
Google divvy up the revenue that flows from online
advertisements
connected to Google Book Search.
Q. Why are you concerned about Google Book Search?
A. The quality of the book scans is not consistently high.
The
algorithm Google uses to return search results is opaque.
Then
there's the commercial aspect. Google will attempt to find
ways
to make money off the service.
Q. Shouldn't Google be commended for helping to preserve
library
books?
A. The company is not preserving books. It is creating an
archive
for Google's own purposes.
Q. How does Google Book Search hurt libraries?
A. The libraries have to make a significant commitment in
terms
of getting their books to Google. The books have to come off
the
shelves. Then after being scanned they have to be put back
on the
shelves. And this resource drain is going to limit the
ability of
libraries to engage in other activities.
Q. Why are you opposed to an out-of-court settlement to the
Google lawsuit?
A. A settlement leaves unresolved how people can use
out-of-print
books whose owners cannot be identified -- orphan works --
and
the question of what is fair use regarding digitized books.
Q. How should Google treat orphan works?
A. No one should be making money from these. Yet that will
happen
because their [copyright] status is unknown.
Q. What would be a good outcome to the litigation?
A. Having a court determine once and for all that it is fair
use
to digitize a copyrighted work and make a snippet of it
publicly
available.
2008 Chronicle of Higher Education
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