The Google Book Project

Mr. Lessig reminds me of what the editorial page in the newspaper used to be. There were those who only wrote a column once or twice a week including guest and syndicated columnists. Very often these comumns had an obvious point of view, but they kept us informed about issues that were either ignored or buried by the newspapers themselves.
Well Mr. Lessig, you've done this. I never would have known about the trouble Google was having because of it's BookSearch site if I hadn't listened to your video. I didn't see anything on TV or hear anything over the radio. What I understand is that Google has created this site to catalogue all of the books that it can find. In addition they have used three catagories or levels of search to distinguish between those books in print and under copyright, those books in the public domain and finally those books that are copyrighted but not available in print. It seems they have done everything possible to ensure that they do not infringe on any copyright. The only area where there is a problem, however, is also the largest. It is those books that are copyrighted but not available in print. I learned that not only is there no publisher to contact for permission to publish but very often the author is either unknown or not able to be located. As a result this area of the project only gives lmited access to the book in the form of "snippets". What this area also provides is the opportunity for browsers to find these books and further search for them, it creates a market for these unpublished works. Unfortunately, they were unable to obtain "permission" from the copyright owners before including these books in their catalogue as they had for the other copyrighted area. This has resulted in their being sued by organizations representing both authors and publishers. They argue that Google is not covered by "fair use" which is allowed under copyright law. They insist that Google did not ask permission before copying parts of these books and that they are profiting from the use of these books. Now Mr. Lessig argues that in his own book he extensivly quotes other books and authors and that he neither asked permission to do so and he has profited from the sale of his book. He did both under the exception of "fair use " which the copyright laws allow. He also argues on behalf of Google that not only are the plaintifs not losing any money-by their own admission-but also, that due to the inefficienty that is inherent in the copyright system, the authors and/or copyright owners of the group of books not in print but under copyright could not be identified or found to ask for permission to copy these books. Fot this reason, as mentioned previously, Google has only made the titles and very limited sinppets available on its site. Where Google has identified authors and/or publishers, they have sought premission to copy copyrighted books and have done only what was allowed by these individuals.
I hope that Google is able to win this battle. At stake is not only this site but the ability of individuals to easily access an enormous part of our cultural heritage. Google is one of the big corporations and that could easily bother me. but I believe the organizations representing the publishers and authors are also very big and very powerful. As Mr. Lessig pointed out, Google has made a concerted effort to adhere to copyright laws and any limitations individual authors and publishers have insisted on. Those trying to stop Google are, by their own admission not losing any money and the market for these books, far from having their market potential harmed, may in the end actually profit from the exposure.
At stake here is the accessability to our cultural heritage. The copyright laws were written to protect the intellectual property rights of those who wrote these books and contributed to our rich culture. This is a good thing. But when these laws are used as an excuse to manipulate control of these works over an exaggerated time frame that adversly effects the past and future, it becomes the law rewriting itself. I believe the project Google has undertaken will be an enormous benifit to anyone who has access to the internet. They should be required to respect the rights of those who own the rights to these books and I believe they have done that and more.