Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 29 June 2005 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT Int. J. Network Mgmt 2006; 16:1 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/nem.590 Editorial Authors and publishers get googled Recently this author received a notice that he was part of a class action settlement that involved over a hundred publishers and several hundred magazines. The publishers of those magazines apparently failed to inform writers that their work would be sold to electronic databases. To participate in the settlement writers have to complete claim forms for each article they authored dating back to the 1970s and include proof of payment for the articles. After spending a few weeks putting my claim forms together I just real- ized that I might as well start documenting the books I authored as in all probability both authors and publishers are about to be googled by Google. Let me explain. While Google is recognized as a wonderful search facility, its announcement last December that it plans to scan the complete text of millions of books from certain libraries located around the globe makes one wonder exactly what the Google executives were smoking. Google’s book-scanning project appears to be oriented towards any books a library provides to include copyrighted material, regardless of the posi- tions of the authors and publishers that hold the copyright to the work. While copyrights do expire, resulting in an author’s effort going into the public domain, Google’s efforts include both public and private domain works. The only acknowledgement that a work is copyrighted is the fact that Google will only make portions of the work available to users, whereas the full text of public domain books will be available to readers. No matter how Google attempts to differenti- ate public and private domain works, its efforts appear to involve the mass infringement of copyright material. While it’s quite an achievement to provide the mass public with access to books, we need to think about the effect upon future authors. If the public can read portions of a book gratis, will they continue to pay for published work? If the public has access to signiﬁcant portions of a book without payment, can Google really expect authors to work on a new project? Unfortunately, the end result may be the unwillingness of authors to share their efforts. After all, when tax rates rise many persons feel it’s not worth the effort to work a second job when the tax collector is the major benefactor of the effort. Sim- ilarly, if authors are googled while Google rakes in advertising, will authors continue to put pen to paper? If the past is any guide, I’ll probably receive a notice of a class action settlement for authors and publishers against Google in a few years. By then, I’ll probably have to search through ﬁles to retrieve con- tracts that will be needed by the court. Personally, I’d rather not bother and hope Google would come to its senses and make a fair and balanced offer to authors and publishers instead of promoting an ‘in your face’ action. As my Macon TV announcer would say, ‘That’s my opinion—what’s yours?’ Gilbert Held *Correspondence to: Gil Held, 4-Degree Consulting, 4736 Oxford Road, Nacon, GA 31210, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENTInt. J. Network Mgmt 2006; 16:1Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/nem.590

Editorial

Authors and publishers get googled

Recently this author received a notice that he was part of a class action settlement that involved over ahundred publishers and several hundred magazines. The publishers of those magazines apparently failedto inform writers that their work would be sold to electronic databases. To participate in the settlementwriters have to complete claim forms for each article they authored dating back to the 1970s and includeproof of payment for the articles. After spending a few weeks putting my claim forms together I just real-ized that I might as well start documenting the books I authored as in all probability both authors andpublishers are about to be googled by Google. Let me explain.

While Google is recognized as a wonderful search facility, its announcement last December that it plansto scan the complete text of millions of books from certain libraries located around the globe makes onewonder exactly what the Google executives were smoking. Google’s book-scanning project appears tobe oriented towards any books a library provides to include copyrighted material, regardless of the posi-tions of the authors and publishers that hold the copyright to the work.

While copyrights do expire, resulting in an author’s effort going into the public domain, Google’sefforts include both public and private domain works. The only acknowledgement that a work is copy-righted is the fact that Google will only make portions of the work available to users, whereas the fulltext of public domain books will be available to readers. No matter how Google attempts to differenti-ate public and private domain works, its efforts appear to involve the mass infringement of copyrightmaterial. While it’s quite an achievement to provide the mass public with access to books, we need tothink about the effect upon future authors. If the public can read portions of a book gratis, will they con-tinue to pay for published work? If the public has access to significant portions of a book withoutpayment, can Google really expect authors to work on a new project? Unfortunately, the end result maybe the unwillingness of authors to share their efforts. After all, when tax rates rise many persons feel it’snot worth the effort to work a second job when the tax collector is the major benefactor of the effort. Sim-ilarly, if authors are googled while Google rakes in advertising, will authors continue to put pen to paper?If the past is any guide, I’ll probably receive a notice of a class action settlement for authors and pub-lishers against Google in a few years. By then, I’ll probably have to search through files to retrieve con-tracts that will be needed by the court. Personally, I’d rather not bother and hope Google would cometo its senses and make a fair and balanced offer to authors and publishers instead of promoting an ‘inyour face’ action. As my Macon TV announcer would say, ‘That’s my opinion—what’s yours?’

Gilbert Held

*Correspondence to: Gil Held, 4-Degree Consulting, 4736 Oxford Road, Nacon, GA 31210, USA.E-mail: [email protected]