Chronicle.com:October 30, 2008
Harvard Says No Thanks to Google Deal for Scanning In-Copyright WorksHarvard University has examined Google's recent legal settlement with publishers and authors, and found it wanting. The Harvard Crimson reported today that the university would not allow its in-copyright holdings to be scanned by Google Book Search because of concerns over the terms of the $125-million settlement, which was announced on Tuesday.
The deal, touted as a watershed moment in mass access to books, promises to make millions more titles available online. Scanned books could be previewed at designated public-library terminals or at institutions that bought a subscription from Google. Users would have to pay to purchase copies of the books, with Google, the publishers, and the authors sharing the proceeds. The settlement awaits final approval by a judge.
Harvardâs concerns center on access to the scanned texts â how widely available access would be and how much it might cost. âAs we understand it, the settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to and use of the books by members of the higher-education community and by patrons of public libraries,â Harvardâs university-library director, Robert C. Darnton, wrote in a letter to the library staff.
He noted that âthe settlement provides no assurance that the prices charged for access will be reasonable, especially since the subscription services will have no real competitors [and] the scope of access to the digitized books is in various ways both limited and uncertain.â He also expressed concern about the quality of the scanned books, which âin many cases will be missing photographs, illustrations, and other pictorial works, which will reduce their utility for research.â
Calls to Mr. Darntonâs office were referred to the universityâs news office. In a statement, Harvard said it would re-evaluate its position as the settlement moves forward. âIf it evolves in a way that makes collections digitized from libraries widely acessible and usable under reasonable terms, we would willingly participate,â the statement said. Harvard will continue to allow Google to scan out-of-copyright works from its collections.
âFor now,â the statement concluded, âthe Harvard University Library will continue to explore other ways to open up its collections more broadly for the common good. -- Jennifer Howard
Bob Darnton is my hero.
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Comments (1)
Good for Harvard.
The two biggest things I find troubling about the agreement is the really mickey-mouse "public library" provision-- which basically turns that one terminal into a printing profit-center for Google-- as well as the lack of any requirements when it comes to public domain downloads.
Right now, the ability to download PD books is discretionary on Google's part. They could pull it at any time, and start charging for downloads (free viewing is required.) Of course, this is bound to happen, especially when they finally "identify" and dump the millions of 1922-1964 PD books they've already scanned.
Third problem-- no remote access unless you belong to a subscribing institution. What this means in a practical sense is that if you're over 22 or 23 years of age or so, you're out of luck. You gotta be a student or a professor to get access to the 'corpus.' Which-- BTW-- was paid for by the taxpayers and given free to Google.
When their UC agreement was first court-ordered into the open last year, it was obvious what Google was up to. This settlement just formalizes the whole business model behind Google Books: the desire to license OOP but still in-copyright works online. And they got em for free!