Google Book
Google Book, launched in 2004, is to books what Google is to the Internet; essentially a search engine that allows users to search inside the full text of books that Google scans and stores in a database. How many books? Well, at last count, approximately 15 million volumes are being scanned within a decade – and not just books in the public domain, but also titles still under copyright. Google Book has been in beta since launch but nevertheless available to the public. Users are granted varying degrees of access to the texts (from no access, to a “snippet” preview, to full access) depending on the copyright status of the book. Proponents hail the project as a huge public benefit, providing access on an unimaginable scale.
Not everyone sees it that way. Shortly after the launch of the project, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed lawsuits claiming Google is committing copyright infringement on a massive scale and commercially benefiting from it (Google is, of course, selling ad space along with search results). Google claims the copying is “fair use.”
Who’s right? We’ll never know. Google recently entered into a settlement agreement with the authors and publishers. The end result is that Google Book will live on, and probably in better shape than had Google prevailed in the lawsuit. To visit Google Book and learn more click here. If you are an author or publisher, learn more about how the settlement agreement effects you here.
–Matt
