The search-engine company launched the Google Books Library Project in December 2004 in partnership with Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford Universities; the University of Michigan; and New York Public Library. Search results allow users to look at the full text of a book if it is in the public domain, but only allow relevant snippets of text if the title is protected by copyright.
The Association of American Publishers has filed a lawsuit to block the Google project on the basis of copyright infringement. Allen Adler, AAP vice president of legal and government relations, told the Associated Press that UC’s action was “a curious decision to make, given the pending litigation and legal uncertainties” surrounding the project.
“Obviously we’re concerned with the sentiments and interests of our publishing partners,” Dan Greenstein, university librarian for systemwide library planning, said in the August 9 Cnet online news. “We will work in compliance with the law.”
The University of California is already participating in the Open Content Alliance, an initiative led by Yahoo and the nonprofit Internet Alliance that will scan and digitize only texts in the public domain. Jennifer Colvin, strategic communications manager at UC’s California Digital Library, which works on digitization projects for the U.C. school system, told Cnet that the university’s involvement with two seemingly competing scanning projects posed no conflict or problem. “We value our partnership with the OCA,” she said. “As a public institution, we believe in making our materials as widely and freely available as possible.”
Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Cnet that while he was pleased the university will continue to work with the OCA, he criticized UC for “privatizing its library system” by agreeing to Google’s limitations on distributing and sharing copies of digitized books. “They’re effectively giving their library to a single corporation,” he said. “Having a public institution decide to go with Google’s restrictions doesn’t help the idea of libraries being open in the future.”
Posted August 9, 2006.