RSSGoogle Print Faces More Legal Hurdles
By Ed Oswald | Published October 19, 2005, 3:10 PM
The Association of American Publishers on Wednesday announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Google to stop the search giant from copying books for its Google Print Library Project. The group said it filed the suit after talks with Google broke down.
The AAP is the second organization to take Google to court over the project. In September, the Author's Guild, a non-profit organization that lobbies for writers, accused Google of "massive copyright infringement." It also asked a U.S. District Court in Manhattan to stop the company from copying books.
In the suit, the AAP asks the court to rule that copyright infringement is being committed each time Google copies a book. Five publishing companies make up the group: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, Penguin Group (USA), Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons.
"The publishing industry is united behind this lawsuit against Google and united in the fight to defend their rights," said AAP President Schroeder in a statement. "The bottom line is that under its current plan Google is seeking to make millions of dollars by freeloading on the talent and property of authors and publishers."
Google has said in the past that publishers have a way of opting out of the system, and that it regrets that some groups are choosing "litigation to try to stop a program that will make books and the information within them more discoverable to the world."
The company says that it plans to start indexing books on November 1, prompting concerned members of the publishing industry to use legal action to prevent Google from starting the project.
Schroeder added that while "Google Print Library could help many authors get more exposure and maybe even sell more books, authors and publishers should not be asked to waive their long-held rights so that Google can profit from this venture."
The book industry is like the MPAA and the RIAA; they want "their" cut.
Another reason they appose this; there are private databases that schools pay subscriptions to of periodicals and research papers (and books). This would potentially cut into those database service's profits.
The database providers should be argueing this on anti-trust (like Netscape in the 90's with MS).
Personaly i'd like to be able to get my paws on more information. I say let google do what it wants here.
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|Sounds like greed. If Google has every major publication online and ready for download in a nice package then what is the point of buying it? Granted there is nothing like sitting down with a good book. They are making it sound like Google is just going to throw all the content online and think nothing of it. Hardly.
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|The whole text won't be available online unless the author allows it. You will only be able to search within the texts to give you an idea of what the books are about.
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|I can't say that I feel sorry for the publishers. How can this affect their income enough to file lawsuits? I mean, afterall, is google allowing students to download their textbooks instead of buying them? With the exception of 1 of the named companies, all center their business around education/university printing.
I have numerous hardcover books from each of the named publishers that cost probably $10 make (if you include all overhead and that is probably a grossly exaggerated $$) and were sold for $160. To prevent the used market from 'stealing' profits away from them, they simply issue a new edition every year with the ever so slightest modification.
Poor publishers.... life must be tough for them. But hey, look at the bright side: You will always have college kids to screw over!
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|I don't see any problem with indexing content. After all they won't show you the full text if it's copyrighted and the author opted out). It's even less than an universal library as you won't have an option to read all the text but only get tips so you can buy it or find it at some place.
Then what's the problem if everyone wins?
- I can find information I'm seeking easily.
- Publishers can get a better exposure.
- Google gets money for something they spend money on building it. That's capitalism for you.
I think most people are jealous of Google having a good idea and getting money from it.
BTW, if I buy a book I can use it as I please and comment it to my friends. What's so different in Google approach? Let's sue librarians then as they do something quite similar when we ask them for info about a book. They are sharing what they read with us! Oh God!
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|Good points.
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|Blah blah blah blah....
Gooogle is the devil....
Blah blah blah blah...
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|Don't be upset, I can send you a gmail invite.
heh heh
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|>>a non-profit organization that lobbies for writers>>
....YuckMouth....what are you on, This does not mean the writers are non-profit, it means the lobby group is...come on, use your head...
Anywho, as far as I see, google should be requesting permission for any non-public domain books, Its a little much to assume a full copy of a book will 1) Be ok with everything and 2) Be any different then some geek on his computer making a pdf of all his java books then sharing those.
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|I hope Google gets screwed hardcore.
They need to concentrate on searching stuff that is on the Internet.
Nothing else. Not email, not pictures.....not anything.
They used to say "Do one thing and do it well"....now they don't like doing that.
Buttholes.
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|If you don't get it, at least be open to hearing a little more information. People with a lot more smarts than us have weighed in on this already. Do a websearch--don't use google if you don't want to.
But at least read what Google has to say:
http://googleblog.blogsp...nt-of-google-print.html
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|The fault of Google Print is that they scanned entire books without permission from copyright authors. If Google only scans excerpts of a book then it can be called fair use (like book reviewers does), but Google will not get away with scanning whole books without explicit permision.
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|Don't take it out on them because you couldn't get the gmail account you wanted. :-P
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|Is that really your argument? If they were still just a search engine Google would not be what it is today. Stop whining.
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|and people still confuse physical property with intelectual property.
i feel sorry for google tho, but only so much.
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|I'm all for this every library must purchase at least 1 copy to have the book so if google purchases one copy like a library why can't it offer it free like a library? I love how people sue as soon as something doesn't go their way. "Author's Guild, a non-profit organization" yet they are sueing over this I thought they would be all for it. I guess it's not so non-profit after all.
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|News flash. You have no rights. If you release a book, it's public property.
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|News flash. You need to go back to school.
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|Wow.
...just wow.
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|"News flash. You have no rights. If you release a book, it's public property."
lol, one of the stupidest comments I read in a while.
Thanks for the chuckle.
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|Wow.
...just wow. Indeed.
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|That is BS. Why can't they just let Google do this? It would be no different than going to the library.
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|Because google stands to make millions on this! Do you think they are doing this for the fun of it?
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