Google Print Library Project

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Scan Library Books

first published January 2006

In December 2004 Google (the internet search engine) entered into an agreement with five libraries (the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and The New York Public Library) to digitally scan library books and make them searchable online. Google has set up scanning centers to facilitate this. Books to be scanned are owned by the libraries, and the digital text files translated by OCR (optical character recognition) software will be stored on Google's servers. The libraries are not seeking permission from authors or publishers to scan the books and make them available in digital format. Needless to say, many of these books contain images (illustrations and photographs). Whether the images will be identified, cataloged, and referenced is not known at this time. 

The “Google Print Library Project” is a blatant breach of international copyright law.

Users requesting the books through whichever library will be directed by that library to Google's servers. Interestingly enough, both publishers and some users have objected to this arrangement for completely different reasons. Publishers do not want to give up control of their content by allowing the scanned books to be stored anywhere other than their own in-house servers. Users are concerned that their privacy would be violated if their personal information that is required by the library [to set up a lenders account] is passed on to Google — a third party.

The Authors Guild filed a class action lawsuit for copyright infringement against Google in federal court NY on September 20, 2005. On October 19, 2005, the Association of American Publishers also filed a lawsuit against Google in federal court in New York.

http://www.publishers.org/

http://www.authorsguild.org/news/sues_google_citing.htm

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1566717,00.htm

Google has already opened seven high-speed book scanning centers in Europe and plans to open two more in the near future. The European publishers associations and creators organizations are up in arms. This was a major topic of discussion and concern at the October 2005 Annual General Meeting of the International Federation of Reprographic Rights Organizations [IFRRO] in Madrid, Spain.

On October 23, 2005, a coalition including Yahoo, Adobe Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and the libraries of the University of California and the University of Toronto announced that they are launching a book-scanning project that would make digitized texts searchable through Yahoo. Calling themselves the “Open Content Alliance,” they are positioning themselves to compete with the Google Print Library Project. Brewster Kahle (remember the Kahle v Ashcroft lawsuit about “orphan works”?) is behind this group.

“Without getting into legal “what ifs,” most of the material in the OCA will be available as full text. There are no limits on how much you can view or download for offline viewing or printing. Kahle said that in some cases you can find content via the Open Content Alliance, print it, and slap a cover on it. Sort of a, “make your own book” type of thing.” [excerpt from searchenginewatch.com article linked below]

http://www.opencontentalliance.org/UC.pdf

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3553086

Not to be outdone, Microsoft has also announced plans on October 26, 2005 to launch an online library of scanned books. Microsoft will launch its “MSN Book Search” in early 2006. Currently, the Microsoft press releases claim that they intend to begin with old works already in the public domain (no longer under copyright protection), and then “will strive to work out deals with the owners of written works before including them in the online library.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051026/tc_afp/ustechmicrosoftbooks