I want to be able to search the worlds library, BUT…Not at the expense of millions of authors and their families who make a career off of selling their writing in order to make a living. Thankfully, the settlement betweenGoogle Book Search and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishersseems to be working in the right direction to make sure writers do not end up emptyhanded. Google is revolutionizing the ability to read and discover new material, afantastic tool for scholars and students. Google’s aim for their Library Project is to:“make it easier for people to find relevant books – specifically, books theywouldn't find any other way such as those that are out of print – while carefullyrespecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover newreaders.”
As a college student with a minor in history, access to any additional researchsounds fantastic. It is often extremely difficult to find a wide range of materials onspecific regions or events in history, and having online access to older books all in one place seems like a huge help.One of the main concerns over the Google Book Search is the inclusion of “orphan works,” out of print but in-copyright books where it is difficult or impossible tofind the appropriate rights holders and ask for approval for the digitization of their books.Around 70 percent of Google’s book collection is believed to be made up by orphanworks, but Google has proposed a settlement agreement that seems more than reasonableto both the website and the authors. Google has proposed to be allowed to display up to20 percent of an orphan book with the inclusion of advertisements, and if the reader wants to continue reading, they will have the ability to purchase the text in full.
In his New York Times column, Sergey Brin points out that the majority of revenue from Google Books will flow back to the rights holders, either the authors or publishers of the provided works. Google is assuming reasonable pricing and access polices, an action that has not been embraced by all, but the reality is that an author or publisher can at any time set the pricing for their books or withdraw their works alltogether.
1 Google Books. (2009).
Google books library project
. Retrieved fromhttp://books.google.com/googlebooks/library.html2 Samuelson, P. (2009, April 17).
Legally speaking: the dead souls of the google booksearch settlement – O’Reilly radar
. Retrieved fromhttp://radar.oreilly.com/2009/04/legally-speaking-the-dead-soul.html3 Brin, Sergey. (2009, October 8).
A library to last forever.
Retrievedfrom http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/opinion/09brin.html? _r=3&partner=rss&emc=rss
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