Publishers Protest Google Library Project

gollum123 writes "A group of academic publishers is challenging Google Inc.'s plan to scan millions of library books into its Internet search engine index, highlighting fears that the ambitious project will violate copyrights and stifle future sales. In a letter scheduled to be delivered to Google Monday, the Association of American University Presses described the online search engine's library project as a troubling financial threat to its membership -- 125 nonprofit publishers of academic journals and scholarly books. The university presses depend on books sales and other licensing agreements for most of their revenue, making copyright protections essential to their survival."

Comments

I heard this story on NPR this morning...

[cnelzie]

...in the story Google had responded by stating that any copyrighted works would be limited to bibliographical information and a few short lines of selected texts. (I believe that Google would then use that as impetus to generate sales revenue off of their "Digital Library" by offering links to associated businesses that produce those texts.)

Honestly, this can be a great financial gain for those publishers, if they get together with Google on how to best select enticing pieces of their copyrighted works in order to drive sales, the academic community will have nothing to lose and everything to gain.