Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Google’s Book Search: The Ongoing Debate

April 30, 2009 at 4:59 pm angiekp Leave a comment

In an article published by the New York Times, reports on the recent inquiry by the Justice Department into the antitrust implications against Google’s Book Search program have surfaced. Analyzing the claims and settlement, they’re digging deep into a debate about how much power and control Google should be allowed over copyrighted material.

The article provides a little background on the ongoing debate:

“The settlement, announced in October, gives Google the right to display the books online and to profit from them by selling access to individual texts and selling subscriptions to its entire collection to libraries and other institutions. Revenue would be shared among Google, authors and publishers.

But critics say that Google alone would have a license that covers millions of so-called orphan books, whose authors cannot be found or whose rights holders are unknown. Some librarians fear that with no competition, Google will be free to raise prices for access to the collection.” …  “Google will be a monopoly.”

Read the whole article here>>

But, there’s another side to the story, and it’s not just Google who’s in favor of the Book Search settlement. Many authors, publishers and readers feel the good outweighs the bad:

Here’s an excerpt from the NY Times article:

“Google, which has scanned more than seven million books from the collections of major libraries at its own expense, vigorously defends the settlement, saying it will bring great benefits to the broader public.

Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they say amounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.”

For those who have recently published and have their book on Google’s Book Search program, it’s definitely a positive. The world is digitizing more and more content every day, so now more than ever, we can marvel at the different ways we can reach such a wide audience across the globe.

But what are your thoughts on this debate regarding the copyright issues for so-called “orphaned” books and their future implications?

-Angie

Entry filed under: In the News. Tags: authors, Books, copyright, Google, Google Book Search.