The saga of Google's Print for Libraries program continues.

The saga of Google's Print for Libraries program continues.

Aug 17 2005

According to Publishers Weekly, the saga of Google's Print for Libraries program continues. Google has announced that it will make changes to accomodate publishers' concerns, but many publishers are not appeased. Earlier Google said that all books would be a part of the program regardless of publishers' wishes (because only snippets of work were being made available which Google argues fall under 'fair usage'). However, now they say that there will be an opt-out option, allowing publishers to pull books that they don't want to be part of the program. Google's representative, Adam Smith, said that Google 'still maintains that legally this isn't something that's required' but is doing this 'in the interest of balancing the needs of publishers and users.'

However, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) continues to object. In a statement, president Pat Schroeder said, 'Google's announcement does nothing to relieve the publishing industry's concerns.....Google's procedure shifts the responsibility for preventing infringement to the copyright owner rather than the user, turning every principle of copyright law on its ear'.

The main bone of contention is the fact that in order to make 'snippets' from a book available to browsers, Google have to scan the entire book which, to many publishers, makes the defense that only snippets are being made available irrelevant.

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