Posted by Jonathan Adler:
The Google Book Settlement:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_29-2009_04_04.shtml#1238862119
The NYT [1]reports on the controversy surrounding the proposed
settlement in the lawsuit challenging Google's plan to digitize
out-of-print books.
a growing chorus is complaining that a far-reaching settlement of a
suit brought against Google by publishers and authors is about to
grant the company too much power over orphan works.
These critics say the settlement, which is subject to court
approval, will give Google virtually exclusive rights to publish
the books online and to profit from them. Some academics and public
interest groups plan to file legal briefs objecting to this and
other parts of the settlement in coming weeks, before a review by a
federal judge in June.
While most orphan books are obscure, in aggregate they are a
valuable, broad swath of 20th-century literature and scholarship.
Determining which books are orphans is difficult, but specialists
say orphan works could make up the bulk of the collections of some
major libraries.
Critics say that without the orphan books, no competitor will ever
be able to compile the comprehensive online library Google aims to
create, giving the company more control than ever over the realm of
digital information. And without competition, they say, Google will
be able to charge universities and others high prices for access to
its database.
The settlement, �takes the vast bulk of books that are in research
libraries and makes them into a single database that is the
property of Google,� said Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard
University library system. �Google will be a monopoly.�
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/technology/internet/04books.html
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