|
Publishers unhappy with Google Library Project |
|
|
|
Academics and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic
are concerned about the effect Google's scanning of
academic libraries will have. The project named,
Google Print, will scan the content of some the best
academic libraries in the USA and at the University of
Oxford in England.
The Association of American University Presses which
represent 125 not-for-profit publishers (principally
of academic material) wrote to the Search Engine
leader suggesting the project "appears to involve
systematic infringement of copyright on a massive
scale."
Other parties to object include profit making
publishers who claim the availability of the material
on the web will discourage people from buying the
books and publications. Two publishers have asked
Google to withhold but their request has been ignored.
The academic publishers rely very heavily on the
revenue from their output - it makes up the lion's
share of their total income and, without it they'll
have difficulties. Again, availability of the matter
on the web may reduce the use of the reading rooms and
affect the spin-off sales they claim.
In Europe, one of the main complaints has been the way
that Google has been perceived to give too much
emphasis to American writing and to work which gives
too much consideration to the American point of view.
In France, there's been added criticism that there's
been too little up take of non English language
literature.
Google claims there's nothing sinister in it's
objectives. The company's position is that there are
serious advantages for both publishers and authors to
have their output in Google Print. In any case,
anything that's still within copyright will only have
a perfunctory listing and a few sample paragraphs on
the web pages - if people want to read the whole
thing, they'll still have to go buy the book.
Google's objective is without doubt to get people onto
the site. The more users there are, the bigger the
audience it has to sell to advertisers it's
advertising income is staggering. Google's profit for
the first quarter was $369 million and the share price
is steady over $250 - from $85 at flotation last fall,
stockholders are doing OK.
Reuben Dunn
Jump2Top.Com
Search Engine Optimization Company |
