Computer and Library Learning (Archived)

(Credit: The LexBlog Network, Google Books Copyright Lawsuit: Court Says Google Scanning Books is 'Fair Use' –Chicago lawyer Even Brown of InfoLawGroup (http://www.infolawgroup.com) speaks with Colin O'Keefe of LXBN TV about the Google Books ruling by Judge Denny Chin.)

On November 14, 2013, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, dismissed a lawsuit against Google Inc. submitted by the Authors Guild that contended that the Internet search engine company had digitized millions of books, resulting in an online library, without seeking permission and infringing upon copyright. Judge Chin ruled that Google’s scanning project fell within the parameters of “fair use” and offered “significant public benefits”. Chin further described Google Books as an “invaluable research tool” that helped authors and “an important tool for researchers and librarians” while respecting the rights of authors and other creators without a major impact upon the rights of copyright holders. Judge Chin also cited the importance of increasing access to books for “traditionally underserved population” with the potential for reading in large text formats, or the use of Braille or text-to-speech software for the visually impaired, not to mention having digital copies of out-of-print titles that might be literally falling apart.  (Read Judge Chin’s ruling in PDF (portable document format) here.)

The use of digitized copies or snippets from books was found to be transformative rather than replacing the actual books themselves. The nature of digitized works was taken into account; while many works were fictional and creator rights needed to be acknowledged, most of the works under the auspices of Google Books were nonfiction in nature and already published. The court acknowledged that Google did copy entire works in some cases but that was deemed fair in the case of transformative use (for educational purposes). On the issue of market harm, the court fully sided with Google, noting that Google did not sell the scans of items. Owning libraries could download a scanned copy of titles that they made available to the Google Books Digital Library project but they would need a good reason (i.e. scanning damaged hard copies to preserve information access while protecting the original, physical copies). Arguably, Google Books might help foster sales of book titles given the context of online shopping.

Associate Professor Samuel Trosow of the University of Western Ontario described Judge Chin’s ruling as “a massive victory for librarians, educators, students and researchers.” Another Canadian academic and expert on fair dealing/fair duty, Meera Nair, described Judge Chin’s ruling as “a decisive endorsement of fair use” and felt that the likelihood of the Authors Guild winning on appeal was unlikely.

Previously, authors and publishers negotiated together with Google and a 2008 settlement would have seen Google pay out US$125 million into a compensatory fund for authors of works appearing in the digital library. That agreement was thrown out by an American court in March 2011 that expressed concern over Google obtaining a “de facto monopoly” on copying monographs, especially those that were out-of-print. Judge Chin, involved in the 2011 court ruling as well, felt that the settlement was too ambitious and broad and that political intervention on issues such as “orphan works” was needed.

(See also: Google Books Digital Library On Hold…For Now)

(Credit: How to Use the new Google Books)

(Credit: Google Books – Do’s and don’ts)

Despite all of the litigation, Google Books (search) is still available for use, regardless of whether one has a Google account (and logs into it) or not. The Google Books Help page provides answers to the following questions related to Google Books (N.B. Any references to law are American):

“

• What is Library Catalog search?
• How to cite Google Books as a source
• Where do you get the information for the 'About this book' page?
• My Library FAQ
• Linking to individual titles on Google Books
• Where your reviews, library, and annotations are publicly displayed
• What APIs are available for Google Book Search?
• Where do these books come from?
• Types of books available on Google Books
• How do I add the Google Books search box to my site?
• Searching Google Books
• What about books in other languages?
• Why do I have to log in to see certain pages?
• Why some books aren’t available in full-text
• How can I reuse public domain works?
• How do you determine if a book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright?
• What is a public domain work?
• How to find the full version of a book
• Why are you telling me the page is unavailable?
• Does Google keep track of the pages I'm viewing or the books I read?
• Does scanning comply with copyright law?
• How Google Books works
• How can I find books through Library Catalog search? “

(Credit: Google Books Help – URL: https://support.google.com/books/topic/9259?hl=en )

Here are some example classic book titles that one can find in “full view” through a Google Books search:

Agrarian Socialism: the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan: a study in political sociology [revised edition] by Seymour Martin Lipset (1971)

Capital: a Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production by Karl Marx (1889)

Grimm’s fairy tales and other popular stories with numerous illustrations by Jacob Ludwig C. Grimm (1881)

The Prince [special student edition] by Niccolo Machiavelli (2007)

Studies on fermentation: the diseases of beer: their causes and the means of preventing them by Louis Pasteur [translated by Frank Faulkner and D. Constable Robb] (1879)

Table of Logarithms of the Natural Numbers from 1 to 108000 by Charles Babbage (1827)

Visit the “About Google Books” page for information about searching, browsing books online, purchasing books or eBooks (from the Google Play store). Full view is available if a book is out of copyright or if an author or publisher has requested to make a book fully viewable. Limited view is made possible by a publisher or author granting access to a limited number of pages. The snippet view provides basic information about the book and very limited content.