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102
Google Delays Book Scans in Libraries Until
End of 2005
August 12, 2005 / SAN FRANCISCO -- Google
Inc. said Friday that it had suspended its high-profile
effort to scan copyrighted books from libraries into its
searchable index.
•
•
The Internet giant -- which sees the program as part of its
grand mission to organize the world's information -- said it
would wait until November before resuming the work to give
publishers time to say which titles they don't want copied.
In the meantime, Google plans to keep adding books that
aren't copyrighted and those that are submitted by
publishers for
inclusion.
•
•
But a publisher trade group said Google's move failed to
answer its concern that the company was violating copyrights
by scanning books without
permission.
•
•
"We're very wary about what the precedent is for the entire
intellectual property world because if Google can do this,
the whole world can do this," said Patricia Schroeder,
president of the Assn. of American
Publishers.
•
•
Google announced the book-scanning program last fall as part
of an effort to expand the universe of documents users can
find with the world's leading search
engine.
•
•
"We're trying to create a program that makes the text of all
books searchable for free," said Adam M. Smith, product
manager of Google Print.
•
•
Experts say Google is blazing a trail in the world of
intellectual property law with these efforts, but has
rankled media companies in the
process.
•
•
In March, news service Agence France-Presse sued Google for
displaying its headlines, photos and story beginnings in
news-search results. In November, the publishers of Perfect
10, an adult magazine and related website, sued Google for
displaying copies of copyrighted Perfect 10 photos. And some
TV executives have objected to a project in which Google
records programs off the air as it tries to do for TV what
it's doing for books.
•
•
Google is "really a bull in a china shop," said Chuck
Richard, lead analyst at Outsell Inc., a research firm that
follows the information industry. "They put out the
technology, they forge ahead to the next one, and they clean
up in their wake. They deal with the business matters
afterward."
•
•
The company said last year that it would bring books into
the digital age through contracts with several academic
libraries. Harvard, Stanford and the University of Michigan
agreed to let Google scan all the books in their
collections.
•
•
Oxford and the New York Public Library agreed to let the
company scan only books not covered by
copyright.
•
•
Google searches the text of books to deliver relevant
passages along with other results that match keywords typed
in by users. For copyrighted books scanned from libraries,
Google displays only a few sentences. For books submitted by
publishers, it generally shows a few pages. Books no longer
under copyright are available in
full.
•
•
On its website, the company said Google Print is "like going
to a bookstore and browsing &emdash; only with a Google
twist." Its search results include links to online
bookstores.
•
•
But book publishers complained after the program was
announced and were negotiating with Google in the months
that followed. The Assn. of American Publishers, the Assn.
of American University Presses and other groups said Google
had no right to make copies of books, even if it displayed
only a few sentences. Schroeder said her organization
objected to Google's pronouncement that publishers must opt
out of the program if they don't want their books
scanned.
•
•
"The great concern of not just publishers but the entire
intellectual property community is Google's turning
copyright law on its head," she said. "All the burden is now
on the rights holder."
•
•
Google executives said they believed the "fair use" doctrine
of copyright law gave the company the right to scan the
books for that purpose. The doctrine generally allows
limited use of copyrighted materials &emdash; for example,
short excerpts of a book published in a
review.
•
•
Lawyers not involved with the case said it was a difficult
issue, and they differed on whether Google's efforts were a
defensible "fair use" of copyrighted works or illegal
copying.
•
•
Bruce Sunstein, an intellectual property lawyer in Boston,
said Google would have a tough case. He noted that the
company profited from its search-engine results by selling
ads.
•
•
"The odds favor the copyright owners in this one," Sunstein
said. "Google has a noble purpose, but I don't think the
noble purpose is going to be enough to save
them."
•
•
But Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law professor, said that
Google probably would win in court if it ever came to that.
Its efforts benefit society by introducing new books to
people, he said, and it's hard to argue that publishers
would lose business because Google lets people read
snippets.
•
•
"This is miles away from Napster music piracy stuff, because
here the usage of the system in no way substitutes for
buying books," he said.
•
•
Schroeder said the trade group planned to continue
negotiations with Google and had no immediate plans to
sue.
///
_________
ByLines:
Editors Note
More Articles
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