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Big Ten Schools Recommit to Google Books Project
CNN reports that twelve major universities around the country have agreed to have substantial portions of their libraries included in the Google Books project. Around ten million volumes are expected to be included in the project. Participating schools include the University of Chicago and the 11 universities in the Big Ten athletic conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. "The committee said Google will scan and index materials 'in a manner consistent with copyright law.' Google generally makes available the full text of books in the public domain and limited portions of copyrighted books. Several other universities, including Harvard and California, already have signed up to let Google scan their libraries. "
The books have to purchased first.. then you can read them from that physical location for "free" (for a variable definition of free)
The bloody marvelous venture from Google changes that.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
You might want to ask Google about their policy on how the scanned public domain works can be used. Part of their usual agreement with the libraries is that they will return to the library the digital version of the book -- but the library is not allowed to let anyone have mass or bulk access to the digital versions. Books that are public domain. Which Google has scanned, eg. has not made any transformative change, but wants to control access to. For those who's disbelieve this, go check it out the agreements for public schools (University of California) are available.
All of the libraries which are part of Clevnet, a large network of libraries in Ohio, do this already for books, music, and movies. Have a look here: http://dlc.clevnet.org/E5AA2452-2F88-4EA9-8F8F-F1E B267C0553/10/210/en/Default.htm
I think it's been hashed to death.
We assume the copyright owner is the person/entity who has final say over who can read their work and under which circumstances. We assume we are talking about Google books, were anybody can come, type a book title and start browsing a portion of any book.
1- the information on the web is copyrighted but already mostly freely available. You only have to find it, which is what search services are about. In this case the vast majority of web authors want to be in Google's index because they want to be read. Furthermore there is an easy way by which authors who do not want search engines to index some or all of their work can prevent the indexing from happening : the robots.txt file.
In this case, we can admit the copyright owner of web works still has complete and easy control over the distribution of their work.
2- the information in books is also copyrighted but *not* freely available. You need to purchase the book if you want to read it. Libraries are an exception to this system, but only one person can read in any physical copy of the book at any one time. Google's book index disturbs this system greatly : many people can peruse in books at the same time. Furthermore, there is no easy equivalent to the robots.txt file. If you want Google to not index your book, it's possible, but you have to tell them in writing. If you are a publishing house, this means writing as many letters as there are books in your inventory, or sue.
In this case, we readily see that copyright owners do not have complete and easy control over their work anymore. It's been turned to a third party. This is the issue.
Whether what Google is doing is fair use is a different matter, for the courts to decide at the moment.
If you want, the Google book project is the equivalent of indexing the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, without the EB's consent. The EB already has a dual free/for-pay online system, I'm positive they do not want Google to intrude on their service.
This is why. You cannot argue that this makes a great deal of sense. It is good for universities to work together in academic affairs, but sadly, many universities do not always want to play nice with each other. It just so happens that the 11 schools of the Big Ten are in a good geographic region with each other and happen to be some of the largest universities in their states.
Regardless of the maybe-not-so-unimportant details, let me just say that Google Books, with "Full View" turned on, is a treasure. I haven't had so much fun since I graduated and moved and lost access to my university library.
There's just amazing stuff in there. Look at this peek at what Princeton University was like in 1818. Before peeking, guess how many professors you think Princeton had in 1818.
How about Horseless Age, full of spiffy ads on all the hot automotive items of 1903?
How about The Boston Road Book, which lists, describes, and rates all the best roads and routes for cyclists as of 1899?
Yes, I wish Google gave access to the OCR text (they must have OCRed it in order to index it) and I wish they were a little more forthcoming with respect to your rights to use this material (can Google really stop me from reusing material that's in the public domain? Does scanning a book constitute a transformative use or whatever?)
But don't let arguing over it stop you from enjoying this fabulous resource.
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