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A brief summary of the issues associated with the proposed Google Book Settlement, particularly as they pertain to UK learners and researchers. This presentation is based on the summary text prepared by Naomi Korn and Rachel Bruce (JISC) available at http://writetoreply.org/googlebooks/.
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The Google Book Settlement
...and what it means for learners and researchers in the UK
andy.powell@eduserv.org.ukhttp://twitter.com/andypowe11
29 September 2009based on a summary by Naomi Korn and Rachel Bruce
(for image credits see final slide)
Background• in 2004 Google started mass digitisation of
books in the collections of several libraries and protected by US copyright law
• several authors and publishers brought a lawsuit against them claiming infringement of copyright
• Google claimed ‘fair use’ but have subsequently reached agreement with representatives of rights owners and publishers
The settlement• covers US published works – books, inserts in
books, government works, public domain books• ...published on or before 5th January 2009• the Book Rights Registry (BRR) will be
established to distribute revenues, find rights holders, settle rights disputes and, where authorised, exploit third party rights
• works which are still in print will require copyright holders to opt in
Review• the settlement is currently under review by
United States District Court, Southern District of New York
• a ‘status update’ will take place on the 7th October 2009 to “determine how to proceed with the case as expeditiously as possible”
• note: negotiations with US Department of Justice likely to lead to some revisions to settlement outlined here
Detail• the settlement allows Google to offer 4
primary services– previews– consumer purchases– institutional subscriptions– free public access service
• but note... this is a US settlement under US law and therefore only applies in the US
Previews• all US users will be able to search Google’s
entire search database for digitised books free, and view up to 20% of text from out-of-print books
• there are special rules for special categories e.g. fiction vs. non-fiction
Consumer purchases• US users may buy perpetual online access to
the full text of out-of-print books• may also buy access to in-print books,
provided that the copyright owner has “opted in”
Institutional subscriptions• US users within an institution may view the
full text of all the books in the Institutional Subscription Database (ISD)
• this includes all books in the in-copyright but out-of-print category
Free public access• Google may provide a Free Public Access
Service to not-for-profit higher education institutions and public libraries on specified conditions
• note: for public libraries, no more than one terminal per library building
• Google will also share its collection of out-of-print works with other books re-sellers who will be able to provide online access
Issues - territoriality• this is a US-only settlement (did I mention that
already?)• UK readers will not be able to access the full-
text view of any texts, only the display and snippets views
• UK researchers will therefore be at a disadvantage to their US colleagues in not being able to view full text works nor the complete database of scanned books
Issues - control• the Google digitisation programme may
amount to over 30 million books• Google’s 5-year lead means that other
projects will find it difficult to mount competitive digitisation programmes
• a large proportion of the world’s heritage of books in digital format and associated metadata will therefore be under the control of a single US corporate entity
Issues - preservation• there do not appear to be any provisions for
long term preservation of the entire database of digitised books in the settlement
• and there are no stipulations for the legal deposit of this database in the instance that Google no longer wishes to preserve it
Issues - pricing• economic terms for the Institutional
Subscriptions Database will be based upon the realisation of revenue at market rates, and the realisation of broad access by the public (including higher education institutions)
• it is crucial that broad access is given full consideration in this settlement to ensure that the beneficial societal effects of the project are realised
Issues - censorship• Google may exclude 15 % of scanned out-of-
print, in copyright books from the database• this may amount to the exclusion of 1 million
books• political pressure may be used to exclude
particular books• note: such exclusions must be published
together with the reasons for their exclusion
Issues - privacy• some of the services offered imply that
Google will collect and retain information of users’ activities
• however, the settlement does not specify how users’ privacy will be protected and in particular how that data may then be used
Issues - research• the collection of scanned books represents a
unique corpus for analysis and research• Google and two institutions may offer this for
purposes of “non-consumptive research” (*) by “qualified users”
• the host site decides who is qualified and whether research is non-consumptive – no challenge available
(*) “non-consumptive” means that the text is not accessed for display or reading
Issues - contracts• the settlement does not stipulate that its
terms will not supersede legislated users’ rights, including specific and general exceptions for libraries and users, and any existing or new approaches to making orphan works accessible
And finally...• this is only a brief summary
there are other issues!• these slides are based on the
JISC summary (by Naomi Kornand Rachel Bruce) availableat:
http://writetoreply.org/googlebooks/
CC images by:v.max1978ailatan
Dawn EndicoToday is a good day
anshu_sidocman
svenwerkCeleste
Steve RhodesLin Pernille ♥ Photography
Paul MayneB_Zedan
Eric M Martin
(all on Flickr)
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