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There's two issues I have with Google books. And I'll preface this
with:<br>
- I make my living from Google<br>
- I used to own a bookstore<br>
- I'm a longtime lover of books<br>
- I collect antique books<br>
- I digitize thousands of pages of old books and while it's a labour of
love, I also attempt to monetize this. Not unlike what Google books
does, but yet very, very differently.<br>
<br>
The first issue with what Google's doing centers around current works
that may or may not be under copyright. These are the orphaned works -
one can't determine who the copyright owner is. A good example would
be small self-published works. Somebody writes a book in the 60's,
prints it, and distributes 500 copies, now he's long passed, no one
remembers him or the book. So what did Google do? Scan them and make
them available for their own monetization purposes. Forget optin in or
opt out, just because you can't find the copyright owner doesn't mean
you're allowed to scan the book and start monetizing it. Yet that's
what Google did. And everything else they're doing is not opt in
Effectively, if you publish a book, they're going to scan it and make
it available online for their own purposes WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION.
They then fight it out in the courts afterwards - this is what they're
working through now. They scanned in (C) books without permission
first, then fought it out in the courts second. <br>
<br>
Secondly with respect to out of copyright books (and books do fall out
of copyright) they have gone to universities who have extensive
collections of rare and antique books. And Google is sending in the
troops to digitize them, so they can make them available online for
free, to everyone. So now researchers don't have to touch the old
books, lots of good things. Sounds nice, can I get a hug? Except
everything I've read indicates that the agreement the universities have
to sign with Google in order to make this happen is draconian. The
new, scanned works are Google's to own, not the universities'. And
Google's to monetize, not the universities. <br>
<br>
that doesn't sound much different than what I do. i scan books, put
them online, the scanned books (C) is then mine(the scan, not the
original), and I monetize. But there's a bit of a difference in intent
and perception here. Everyone is well aware of where I'm coming from,
and I don't do orphaned works to the best of my ability. Where there's
doubt, I'll frequently call the publisher for permission. In Google's
case, there's too many of the uninformed public who's love affair of
all things Google runs too deep - they don't see Google using their
excessive power to rip copyright away from millions of authors and then
getting away with a slap on the wrist after they get taken to court. <br>
<br>
I'd be hard pressed to find an example of MS using tactics this
distasteful in the 30 years they've been in business, though admittedly
I get a bit pissy when it comes to (C) and books in general. And the
next time you think of Google, to paraphrase the latest issue of Linux
magazine, you'd be well advised to remember it's not a search engine,
it's an advertising company. something like 97% of their many
billions of dollars in revenue comes from running ads on copyritten
content generated by others. An ad company, generating billions of
dollars in revenue and STILL laying tech people off I might add.<br>
<br>
Can I give another example? You write a page of content and publish it
on the web. Google indexes it and provides a brief snippet as their
search results. That little snippet is fair use - that's well
established. But have another look - see that word 'cached' beside
your listings? Click on that and Google will show you your entire page
of content, republished in it's entirety. I can scrape your entire
website content from Google, because Google has copied 100% of your
content and makes it available in the full page, not just as a fair use
snippet. Yes, there's an opt out mechanism. But again with the opt
out. And don't think that people don't use your Google to take your
content for their own purposes - rest assured they do.<br>
<br>
I'd say 'don't get me started' but it's clearly a bit late for that :).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:4a9fdc631001232101m10b7b83cw8168d052e0330f2f@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">Thanks! This is much clearer than my cryptic half sentence
...<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 11:47 PM, Bob
Jonkman <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:bjonkman@sobac.com">bjonkman@sobac.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Local
author and writer Laurel L. Russwurm suggests that Canadian authors opt
out of the Google Book Scan settlement. <br>
The issue is that Google will be using scans of books for commercial
purposes, and paying one blanket settlement to the American Author's
Guild. Authors and copyright holders will not be able to negotiate
their own terms for this commercial use of their works.<br>
<br>
This will affect authors in the USA, Canada and Australia. New
Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and India have already opted out of
this, preferring to deal with Google through their own country's author
collectives rather than the American Author's Guild.<br>
<br>
More info at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/google-book-search-opt-out-letter-writers/"
target="_blank">http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/google-book-search-opt-out-letter-writers/</a>
and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/canadian-writers-artists-say-no-to-gbs-settlement/"
target="_blank">http://laurelrusswurm.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/canadian-writers-artists-say-no-to-gbs-settlement/</a><br>
<br>
The deadline for opting out is 28 January, and the final decision will
be handed down on 18 February..<br>
<br>
--Bob.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
<br>
Bob Jonkman <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:bjonkman@sobac.com" target="_blank">bjonkman@sobac.com</a>>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://sobac.com/sobac/"
target="_blank">http://sobac.com/sobac/</a><br>
SOBAC Microcomputer Services Voice: +1-519-669-0388<br>
6 James Street, Elmira ON Canada N3B 1L5 Cel: +1-519-635-9413<br>
Software --- Office & Business Automation --- Consulting</font>
<div>
<div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Paul Nijjar wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 05:42:24PM -0500, Lori Paniak wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Does anyone know the details of Google's foray into book digitization?<br>
Taking control from "those who write it" doesn't sound very<br>
FLOS-friendly. Or is this last-minute posturing by certain writers for
a bigger slice of pie? <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/01/23/leguin-petition-google.html"
target="_blank">http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/01/23/leguin-petition-google.html</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Here are a couple more links that help illustrate the issue: <br>
This guy is against the settlement, but illustrates the conflict<br>
pretty well. "Orphan" copyright holders get five years to come forward<br>
and collect fees before those fees disappear. The author below says<br>
that the Google scanning is opt-out, not opt-in, which is the problem: <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-brantley/google-books-and-the-high_b_342318.html"
target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-brantley/google-books-and-the-high_b_342318.html</a><br>
<br>
Cory Doctorow is against the Author's Guild lawsuit because it is a<br>
class-action lawsuit, but he approves of Google indexing book results<br>
(which is not exactly the same as what is going on, as far as I can<br>
tell): <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/google-book-search-s-1.html"
target="_blank">http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/17/google-book-search-s-1.html</a><br>
<br>
- Paul<br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
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<br>
<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
Khalid M. Baheyeldin<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://2bits.com">2bits.com</a>, Inc.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://2bits.com">http://2bits.com</a><br>
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.<br>
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. -- Edsger W.Dijkstra<br>
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. -- Leonardo da Vinci<br>
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