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abstract:
The Google Book Search Library Project, in which millions of books from libraries will be scanned and made searchable on the Web, has led to controversy and legal action. Publishers are suing Google for copyright infringement, while Google claims their use falls under the fair use privilege of the Copyright Act. An overview of the library project is followed by an examination of the controversy and a look at the beta program in practice.
Introduction
Dear colleagues,
I would like to know your opinion about free access to full-text documents.
It's a good thing. Next question? Roy1
Roy Tennant's succinct answer to a question posed on the Digital Libraries listserv represents what many feel about the increasingly common digitization of print materials. Likewise, Google, an innovator in information discovery, announced that it would begin scanning books in library collections "to make the world of books more discoverable."2Since then, there has been a barrage of good and bad press, numerous complaints, many glorifications, and two lawsuits. Although Google is not providing full-text documents for items still under copyright but is making them searchable and retrievable, there has been, nonetheless, a heated debate over the legality and ethics of what most would deem to be a "good thing."
About the Program
In support of Google's mission to "organize the world's information," the Google Book Search program is designed to digitize printed book content so that it may be searched and retrieved via Google's search engine.3 The program has two facets-one that involves publishers, which has not been controversial, and one that involves libraries, which has.
In the publisher program, publishers can either provide a hard copy of a book that Google scans at no charge, or they can supply books in a digital format. Authors can also supply books, as long as they are the copyright holders. Google then indexes the content and allows the full text to be searched online. Google advertises this program as "a free worldwide sales and marketing system."4
The publisher program had been in existence for many months before Google announced its library program. Five libraries were asked to participate, and there are no plans at this time to involve other collections.5 Libraries loan books to Google for scanning, and,...