Google halts Print Library project - temporarily |
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Sun, 14 Aug 2005 02:35
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SAN FRANCISCO: Google temporarily halted its plans to offer a full text search facility via the Internet of copyrighted books in five of world's top libraries. The search engine company said it will stop scanning the copyrighted books for three months to enable copy right holders to contact the company seeking to withhold books from the project, named Google Print Library.
The project had drawn flak from the publishing community and authors, who described it as having built on a foundation of purposeful copyright violation.
Google's program manager handling the project Adam Smith said in a posting on the company's web site: "Any and all copyright holders ... can tell us which books they'd prefer that we not scan if we find them in a library. "
Google will continue with the project to scan books in the public domain and those not covered under copyright, Adams said. The five libraries involved in the project are Oxford University, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, Stanford University and the University of Michigan.
Google Print Library allows users to type the name of an author or a book or a word or a phrase in a search box on http://print.google.com/ which will return a list of all connected books scanned by the company. The company has been working with publishers encouraging them to make their books digitalised and searchable, saying they will stand to benefit as they can create pages for each book on the Internet with advertising and links to book vendors. Publishers are also allowed to have a direct sales outlet through the net. The company refused to divulge how many books are now searchable.
The announcement has brought in some angry response from publishers. A publishing trade association described the scheme as inadequate, saying it did not tackle the main concern -- of copyright violation.
Some of the critics went to the extent of saying the plan switched the burden of upholding copyright from infringers to the copyright holders. Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive of the Association of American Publishers, said, "This really stands copyright law on its head. There are hundreds of years of tradition that go the other way."
Smith said his company will continue to talk with concerned organizations of publishers, authors and other interested parties to arrive at a possible via-media.
Google had in December last entered into agreements with the five libraries to scan the books, make digital copies and allow Google users to search those works. While the agreements with Oxford and New York Public Library covered public domain works only, (meaning books that are out of the purview of copyright laws), those with Harvard University, Stanford University and University of Michigan provided for Google to copy their entire collection, both public domain and those under copyright. When a search result is related to a protected work, Google would display a few lines plus bibliographic information. If the work is still in print, it would give links to the the location
where it can be bought.
Schroeder said her association had proposed to Google several changes in the program but Google had rejected them. She refused to elaborate on the changes.
Smith said what Google is doing is "completely in line with the principles of fair use. We think this will help more users to discover their books, and buy their books."
He added that the goal of Google Print is ambitious -- "to make the full text of all the world's books searchable by anyone. These books are hard to find now, and for most of them, no full-text search exists. We think that making books easier to find will have a positive impact on the world."
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