Crkn agm oct 2009 google books settlement

The Google Book Settlement: What it means for Canadian libraries, universities and researchers*Tony Horava

University of Ottawa

CRKN AGM, Oct 8, 2009

* Several of these slides are taken from a presentation jointly made with Sian Meikle, University of Toronto

Google Books Settlement - CRKN AGM

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Overview

Quick survey of proposed settlementAccess to Google BooksCopyright issuesMarketplace impactsCompetition issuesPrivacy mattersAcademic freedomQuestions and conclusion.

Google Book Search

Started in 2004

42 Library Partners & Publisher Partners program

Google-funded

In-copyright and out-of-copyright material– Google and selected library partner servers only

10 million books to date:– 2 million public domain (20%)

– 7.5 million in copyright, out of print (75%)

– 0.5 million in copyright, in print (5%)

Eventual aim: 30 million books


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Proposed Google Books Settlement

2005– US class-action lawsuit against Google– American Publishers Association– American Authors Guild

October 28 2008– proposed settlement announced– Possible outcomes:

accept, reject, or court oversight– Changing the agreement is not an option

Nov 9 2009 (moved from June 11 09)– Sept 18: US Department of Justice advises Court not to

accept settlement but to encourage further discussion– Sept 24: Court accepts motion to delay final hearing;

will hold status conference on Nov 9 instead – a modified agreement to be presented.


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Google Books Settlement outline

Covers online access in the US for books only:– published before January 5 2009– covered by Berne copyright convention (164 countries)– “Could” cover books published after above date

Google pays $125 million– $34.5 million to establish Book Registry– $45 million to rights holders for books scanned prior to

May 2009 ($60 per title)– $45.5 million for legal fees

Split of future revenues:– 63% to copyright holders– 37% to Google


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Google Books Settlement – products

Display uses (saleable products): – Access, preview, snippets, book records

Non display uses (free and research products):– Display of metadata only; full-text and geographic indexing

without display of text; analytical research across corpus; and Google R&D

Inclusion:– In print books: need to opt-in to display uses– Out of print books: need to opt-out of display uses– In print = commercially available in USA and Europe

Products:– Individuals: sale of perpetual access per title via Google server– Institutions: sale of annual access to ISD


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Book Rights Registry

Non-profit independent agency representing plaintiff interests to:– Manage rights database: copyright status, contact

information, rights information– Negotiates terms and prices of online book uses

on behalf of rights holders– Distribute share of revenue to rights holders, based

on formula in agreement– The Registry does not have to be made public.


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The ‘Research Corpus’

Represents all Google books except in-copyright works whose rights holders have removed their works

Hosted at Google, up to two other mirror sites

‘Non-consumptive’ research:

– linguistic analysis, automated translation, book relationships, index/search techniques

If qualified users want to search the Research Corpus for ‘non consumptive’ research, e.g. textual or linguistic analysis, their research agenda needs to be approved by the host institution

“Research Agenda” means a document that describes a research project in sufficient detail to demonstrate that it will be Non-Consumptive Research” (p. 17 of Settlement)

Host institution is responsible. What will the criteria be? This will certainly conflict with academic freedom…fundamental values

will be at play


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What has the reaction been?

Positive: – Enormous corpus representing our cultural heritage

that is available to wide audience– Lack of ‘Orphan works’ legislation in US Congress is

bypassed. NB- orphan works are those for which the rights holder is unknown or un-locatable.

Concerns:– A de facto monopoly & copyright issues– Pricing– Intellectual freedom & Equity of access– Privacy– Long-term security of data


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Copyright and monopoly challenges

Raises public policy issues regarding the delicate balance between public and private good; how does it reflect upon the nature of copyright in a digital world?

The interests of one group (known rights holders) are pitted against another (absent rights holders or orphans) in relation to revenue sharing and pricing.

Can a class-action settlement provide equity for economic rights and address the public good?

Compulsory licensing via class action settlement is supplanting copyright legislation as the driver for reproducing and disseminating in-copyright books (in a commercial model) to our collective cultural heritage – enormous risk for the stewardship role of libraries.

What if Google’s business model completely changes in twenty years?


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Copyright and monopoly challenges (2)

The Registry will not be available to the public - a key tool is being developed privately

The board of the Registry will have no librarian or reader representation… this is very problematic for a balanced approach to copyright, access, and pricing.

Will have a damper effect on Open Access and Creative Commons licensing – an ‘institutional bias’ (Samuelson) against it. How will this affect the long-term plans of the Open Content Alliance, for example

No other provider can be offered license terms better than Google’s for ten years – creates a virtual monopoly and enormous lead time advantage. Google has exclusive right to digitize the orphan works.


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Pricing concerns

Pricing to be determined by: the pricing of similar products & services; the scope of books available; the quality of the scan; and features offered via the subscription

The settlement refers to two broad goals: 1)Market realization of revenues for rights holders, and 2) Broad access by the public including institutions of higher education …to be based on “comparable products and services”. But which ones?.

Could lead to a widening of the digital divide between wealthier and poorer libraries.

Lack of balance in these two objectives is a key reason for postponement.


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Intellectual Freedom and Equity of Access

Google can exclude a book for editorial reasons: on what basis? Pressure from governments or powerful interest groups could have an important impact, e.g. Google saving itself from embarrassment or bad PR by suppressing a controversial book

The Settlement requires Google to provide public access and the ISD for only 85% of the in-copyright, not commercially available books (potentially 1M books)

Censorship & freedom of expression – another conflict with library values

Works within works might be excluded, depending on rights holder exercising his rights independently, eg an essay, a poem, a chart or a table

The Settlement doesn’t include pictorial works, eg photographs and illustrations will be blacked out.


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Privacy concerns

Google has an unprecedented opportunity to monitor and track user reading habits, eg when a user prints out pages from a book in the ISD, there will be a visible watermark displaying encrypted session information “which could be used to identify the authorized user that printed the material or the access point from which the material was printed” (art 4.1)

“For purchases of online e-book access or access via institutional subscriptions, Google will have the technical ability to track every page that one views, even recording how long is spent on a page.” (Alan Inouye, ALA)

For which purposes will Google collect data?What are the safeguards against misuse of data?


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Questions

Google is becoming a digital library of mammoth proportions - the purpose of our libraries and in particular our collections will be questioned.

How do we partner with Google to take advantage of this dizzying opportunity for ‘’ breathing new commercial life into millions of long forgotten, commercially unavailable works”

Can library values be respected in a modified settlement?

Can a modified settlement allow Google, publishers, and authors to find compromise between private and public interests? Will it lead to ‘copyright peace’? (Department of Justice filing)

How does it impact or challenge the ways in which students, researchers and others access culture, and enhance, collaborate, and produce new cultural works for education and scholarship?

We need to monitor developments closely, and engage in vigorous, balanced advocacy with our stakeholders, and show support for US libraries & organizations that are raising serious concerns


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Conclusion

• The Google Books Settlement offers much opportunity but many challenges - we need to monitor developments closely, engage in vigorous, balanced advocacy with our stakeholders, and show support for US libraries & organizations that have made their submissions (filings available in the Public Index)


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Technology

Crkn agm oct 2009 google books settlement