Melville House Books

At first, Google Print seemed like a good idea to most in the conglomerate side of the book industry, and major publishers such as Random House, John Wiley & Sons, Simon & Schuster,” and others immediately signed on for a pilot program that included sending thousands of books to be digitized. But now those publishers, as well as the Authors Guild and the American Association of Publishers is raising concerns about the program — as well as opposition. As Burt Helm explains in an in-depth Business Week article, the deal was that when the digitized book “came up on Google searches, users would only be allowed to see a few pages of the book, but links would be provided to the Web sites where the books were being sold. The link would go to the publisher’s site if it were handling direct sales, according to the original plan. In addition, Google said it would place sponsored links next to the text, splitting the ad revenue with the publisher.” But things changed last December when, “With no advance notification, the search provider unveiled its Print for Libraries program, aimed at digitizing public-domain books from the likes of the New York Public Library, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, and the libraries of Harvard and Michigan universities.” The plan included making available online complete texts of public-domain books online, and “snippets” of copyrighted text. And significantly, notes Helm, Google said it would provide digital copies of its books to the member libraries. As a result, “Publishers now worry Google might someday distribute digital copies of copyrighted books without their or the author’s approval. The publishers argue that libraries have no legal right to digitize copyrighted material by handing it over to Google.” What’s more, “The mass digitization of library books also raises concerns about piracy,” notes Helm. Authors’ Guild general counsel Kay Murray says, “Nobody has convinced us that this can’t be hacked.” Now, the AAUP has written a letter to Google blasting it for “systematic infringement of copyright on a massive scale.” Google has yet to respond.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.