It's interesting to me that I didn't actually see this coming. Publishing Groups Say Google's Library-Scanning Effort May Violate Copyright Laws (Chronicle of Higher Ed subscription required, alas):
Some publishing groups say that Google's ambitious project to scan millions of library volumes and make them searchable could run afoul of copyright laws, and that Google should get permission from publishers before proceeding.
Of course, I figured that there would be copyright issues and thought that Google Library Books project would not be distributing digitized content whose copyright it does not own to the world. But it never occurred to me to think that they shouldn't be able to scan the books in the first place. If for no other reason, libraries have a duty to preserve our cultural heritage, and that undoubtedly there would provisions in our history of fair use that would cover such replicative action. I realized how naive I really was about the copyright issues and look forward to seeing how this gets all resolved. Personally, I'm rooting for Google Library Books and its project sister Internet Archive project to prevail here.
BTW, the CHE article points to Publishers irritated by Google's digital library, which does not require registration.
Posted by Raymond Yee on 2/7/05; 10:57:28 AM
from the Unclassified dept.
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Monday, February 7, 2005