Google to put copyright laws to the test
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-19 06:50

"We're not aware of everything we've published," Sanfilippo said. "Back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, there were no electronic files for those books."

Google, which wouldn't say how many books it has scanned so far, says it believes its initiative is protected under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law.

Gerber argues that the initiative will "stimulate more people to contribute to the arts and the sciences by making these books more findable."

Washington lawyer Jonathan Band says Google's case is strong given the limits on display — a few sentences at a time for works scanned from libraries, with technology making it difficult to recreate even a single page.

"I don't see how making a few snippets of a work available to a user could have any negative impact on the market," said Band, who has advised library groups and Internet companies on copyright issues.

Under Google's strictures, readers can see just five pages at a time of publisher-submitted titles — and no more than 20 percent of an entire book through multiple searches. For books in the public domain, they can read the entire book online.

Not all publishers are opposed.

"For a typical author, obscurity is a far greater threat than piracy," said Tim O'Reilly, chief executive of O'Reilly Media and an adviser to Google's project. "Google is offering publishers an amazing opportunity for people to discover their content."

James Hilton, associate provost and interim librarian at the University of Michigan, said his school is contributing 7 million volumes over six years because one day, materials that aren't searchable online simply won't get read.

"That doesn't mean it's going to be read online, but it's not going to be found if it's not online," he said.

Hal Hallstein, a 2003 Colby College graduate, said Google's project would have been useful for his studies in Buddhism. He typed the word "shunyata" — Sanskrit for emptiness — and found several books he didn't know existed.

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