Making Sense of Google
What Google's Doing: Making deals with libraries (so far, Harvard, Stanford, and University of Michigan) to scan the entire contents of their stacks - copyrighted and public domain alike. When a user searches on Google, the result that comes up for copyrighted material is a squib of text, a bibliographic listing, and links to purchase the book. But in order to do that much (and to feed the search engine) Google has to scan the text of the entire book and hold that text in its database to search against.
Why the AAP Objects: Because it means that Google is holding the entire texts of copyrighted books in a database that could potentially leak; because it means that Google is soliciting ads based on copyrighted material and not compensating percentages of that ad revenue to the copyright holders (authors, publishers, etc.).
What Happens Next: Well, right now the AAP and Google are talking and not telling us anything. It's an interesting debate, though - whereas publishers used to control copyrights, now in some cases libraries are also serving as a gateway. What happens if Harvard gives Google permission to scan the text of a Wiley book that Wiley has not consented to share with Google? Does Wiley then threaten not to sell its books to Harvard?
I see this as being very similar to the used-books phenomenon - publishers want to get paid for the life of a book as long as it's viable. They want a percentage of the sale of used books; they want a percentage of the revenue generated by a huge search engine like Google. It's useful to look at the music industry for indications as to where this is going - the iPod proves that the Napster horse has left the barn, and similarly it's just a question of what terms the publishers will work out with Google and with libraries that Google's doing business with. In other words, this latest fracas isn't exactly a showstopper; it's more like a pothole.
Why the AAP Objects: Because it means that Google is holding the entire texts of copyrighted books in a database that could potentially leak; because it means that Google is soliciting ads based on copyrighted material and not compensating percentages of that ad revenue to the copyright holders (authors, publishers, etc.).
What Happens Next: Well, right now the AAP and Google are talking and not telling us anything. It's an interesting debate, though - whereas publishers used to control copyrights, now in some cases libraries are also serving as a gateway. What happens if Harvard gives Google permission to scan the text of a Wiley book that Wiley has not consented to share with Google? Does Wiley then threaten not to sell its books to Harvard?
I see this as being very similar to the used-books phenomenon - publishers want to get paid for the life of a book as long as it's viable. They want a percentage of the sale of used books; they want a percentage of the revenue generated by a huge search engine like Google. It's useful to look at the music industry for indications as to where this is going - the iPod proves that the Napster horse has left the barn, and similarly it's just a question of what terms the publishers will work out with Google and with libraries that Google's doing business with. In other words, this latest fracas isn't exactly a showstopper; it's more like a pothole.
What I offer:
