[Web4lib] More on Google's digitization efforts

[Mark Costa]

I am not sure how to word this correctly, but theoretically, could a program 
be devised to take advantage of Google's ability to display excerpts from 
the material. What I am thinking is a distributed search engine that would 
submit automically generated queries to the Google servers that would, as a 
collective whole, retrieve an entire copyrighted work?

On 9/6/05, Walt.Crawford at rlg.org <Walt.Crawford at rlg.org> wrote:
> 
> Well, that would be part of the court case if it goes to court. (Which it
> probably won't.)
> 
> As I understand the Michigan contract, Google is returning scanned copies
> of the books to the libraries. It can't do that without keeping a copy,
> although I suppose it could not keep its own copy.
> 
> If this does go to court, it may be one of the more interesting fair-use
> cases. I've seen very knowledgeable people come down on both sides...
> 
> [And if publishers were sensible, they'd applaud Google's effort, since it
> should lead to more sales. That's a whole other discussion, to be sure.]
> 
> -wcc-
> 
> web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org wrote on 09/06/2005 09:16:10 AM:
> 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 6 September 2005, Walt Crawford wrote:
> >
> > > Lars notes, re a Chicago Tribune article on Google Print...
> > >
> > > One lawyer says in the article that you need copyright permission
> > > > to offer searches. Perhaps then you also need copyright
> > > > permission to offer loans, catalog records, and what not?
> > > >
> > > > As far as I know, I can compile an alphabetic index to someone
> > > > else's book and publish it without asking permission from the
> > > > copyright holders. In fact, I already did that,
> > > > http://aronsson.se/funkybusiness.html
> > > >
> > > > How is my finding tool any different from Google Print?
> > >
> > > Lars probably knows the answer already: He didn't go out and scan
> entire
> > > books and serials that he did not purchase or own, keeping the scanned
> > > copies, as part of compiling that index.
> >
> > Lars made an index. While he could have gone through the text writing
> down
> > note cards when he came across a term that he wanted to trace, he most
> > probably made the index by scanning the text of the book, reading the
> > scanned pages with an OCR, and compiling an index from the OCR'd text.
> > What he preserved was not the scanned page but the index, a document 
> that
> > simply states that each particular word occurs on a particular place on 
> a
> > particular page, i.e., a simple fact. Facts are not copyrightable, at
> > least under US law.
> >
> > I think if you read Google's description of what they are going to do
> with
> > respect to material still in copyright (see <
> > http://print.google.com/googleprint/library.html>) that it very closely
> > resembles my description of what Lars might have done. They will create
> > digital indices of books. When you search for a term they will give you
> a
> > report that tells you how many times the term occurs in a particular 
> book
> > and shows you three places in the book where the word occurs, together
> with
> > a amall amount of text on either side. This report could be produced
> from
> > the index, without using a copy of the book. It seems to me that what
> > Google is doing is easily within the law as it currently exists.
> >
> > Nick Finke
> >
> > ************************************************************************
> > Nicholas D. Finke Ph:513-333-7528
> > Librarian
> > National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
> > 50 East Freedom Way
> > Cincinnati, OH 45202
> > E-mail: nfinke at nurfc.org
> > Web: http://www.freedomcenter.org
> >
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-- 
Mark R. Costa
Off-Campus Librarian, Eastern Region
Central Michigan University