« Relating to "The Blogger that Loathed Me" | Main | CWA »
October 30, 2005
Go Google!
A few weeks ago, I posted a link to an article that talked about how Google, in an attempt to scan library books to make them available online, is being sued for copyright infringement. For those of you who commented on that article, I thought you would find it interesting to know that there is an UPDATE on this story.
Google has made some modifications to their project. They are allowing any authors who do not want their work to be published online to opt out of this project. Also, Google is no longer going to reprint the books in their entirety or even in large portions. They are going to reprint three or so lines of a main part of the book so that the information can be easily found online. For example, if someone is searching for a specific piece of information and he types that information in a search engine, if that info is in a book that Google has scanned, a few lines pertaining to the desired info will show up. This will let the searcher know that this book is out there and that it has some of the information he is looking for. The article has more about the specifics.
Along with most of you who commented on this issue before, I agree that Google is in the "right" here. I mean, these books are in libraries, available for free check-out. Now that Google has made these latest modifications to please those who are protesting, it seems to me as if everyone should be happy. However, as the article suggests, Google still might not have a chance of winning the lawsuits and pulling this off. I'd like to think otherwise. Who wouldn't want this great addition of information added to the internet? I would think the authors would be happy. From my perspective, this is free advertisement for them. It definitely boosts their chances of having their books (that usually sit on a library shelf somewhere) get noticed.
Posted by Ashley Lauro at October 30, 2005 10:14 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://neovox.cortland.edu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/281