Is Google guity for scanning books

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:21:41 GMT

Google kicked off the book scanning initative in mid 2005. MSN and Yahoo both follow through later in the year. After a year of suspension, resume, legal dispute, etc... the real benefit and legal stand of these book scanning projects become a bit clear. This article from NY Times ("Scan This Book", 14 May 2005) provide a very comprehensive view point and vision about these "books" after they are scanned.

Books in the library can roughly classified into 3 categories under U.S. copyright law. 15% of the book titles are already in the public domain, anyone are free to make copy. 10% are still in print, and the remaining 75% are not in print. Both the 10% and 75% are copyrighted material owned by book publishers.

All scanning projects focus on the first 15%. And most portal sites (Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc.) have stricked business deal with book publishers to sell the 10% still-in-print in either e-book or by pages. No one would like to touch the remaing 75% - portal sites are afraid of copyright infringement; book publishers don't want to invest for limited economic benefit. Therefore, these 75% books just sit in the library.

Google finally decided to scan this remaining 75% as well last Nov, after stopping for 3 months.

Both consumer and most authors of these books like the idea very much. For the authors, these books have already sold out and out-of-print, it won't generate any money for them. But if the books can not be search and possibly drive some sales or advertising revenue in the future, it's so nice. Google did a great job connecting these "dead" books with the users. What's a great move again.

But does Google have the legal ground to stand on?

Negotiation failed last fall. Book publishers sue Google for copyright infringement for scanning the books without getting the permission. Google argue that it will only allow users to view a few lines/pages. It should be well within the "fair use" of the books, as this will provide an opportunity for user to "preview" it. Although the case is still in progress, most publishers have already stricked deals with Google on the 15% titles. I think it's only a tactics of book publishers to strengthen their bargaining position. But even if book publishers are willing to deal with Google, they may not be able to solve their own copyright problem with the authors. Revenue split formula still need to develop on how authors can share the ad dollar, otherwise it will be another dispute.

The copyright issue behind are quite complicated. It must not be an easy task for the court. There are still several months before the judgement (which definatelly will follow up by appeal...), but I really hope that they can negotiate again for a solution. The last thing I would like to see is a repeated story of "The Authors Guild v. Lexis-Nexis & NY Times". It will only be a loss-loss outcome.

Do you think Google is guity?

New Media Ecology (by Ringo Lam): Book

Is Google guity for scanning books