Association of American University Presses concerned at Google print project
Link: Association of American University Presses concerned at Google print project
The Association of American University Presses, which represents 125 non-profit-making academic publishers, is concerned that Google’s plan to put university libraries online, could breach copyright rules.
Google’s £110m project, involves putting 15 million volumes online from the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and from New York Public Library, by 2015. It will also include out-of-copyright books from Oxford University in the UK.
The project will enable researchers to access texts which were previously inaccessible to them and represents the realisation of a longstanding ambition of Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
The Association believes the plan involves large-scale infringement of copyright, which could be detrimental to the sales of works that publishers own the rights to. The organisation’s members gain most of their revenues through book sales and licensing agreements.
France has also expressed concern that Google’s project will enhance the dominance of the English language and of Anglo-Saxon ways of thinking. France and several other European countries have recently secured European Union support for a rival book-scanning project for works not in English.
The head of Oxford University’s library service supports the scheme, saying it could be almost as important as the invention of the printing press. Other supporters of the project argue that copyright is protected because many of the works being scanned in are old texts not by living authors.
Google says it will provide protection to copyright holders. If books are still in copyright, users will only see a list of contents and a few sentences of text.
