Google Offers Scanned Books To Rival Stores 150
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the take-two-they're-small dept.
from the take-two-they're-small dept.
eldavojohn writes "Yesterday we covered Microsoft's jabs at the Google book deal, but today Reuters is reporting that the scanned books will be available to Google's rivals. Google said in a surprising statement, 'Google will host the digital (out-of-print) books online, and retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore will be able to sell access to users on any Internet-connected device they choose.' They made this statement today at the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that had been called to discuss criticism of a 2008 settlement between the Authors Guild and Google. Well, I would bet this has caught more than a few people by surprise. The Authors Guild offers a history and the fine print of the agreement."
Re:Interns? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How Is This a Good Thing? (Score:3, Informative)
If a work is in the public domain, then it is no longer protected by copyright law in regards to the possibility of circumventing it. What they are doing is creating a derivative work of a public domain work (which they are free to do, as the original owner no longer has rights in regard to how the materials are used), which they will then own copyright on until such time as that expires and their scans/ocr of the original text enters the public domain, at which point you are free to use their materials to do whatever you like.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain [wikipedia.org]
On the other hand, what Google seems to be doing, and what is the contention of The Author's Guild and others, is taking orphaned works, those works still under copyright, but are A) no longer in active production, and B) the owner of the copyright cannot be easily located, and creating a derivative work of those. The legal status of which is questionable at best.
Additionally, as a derivative work, Google will only hold copyright on any changes they make, not to the original text itself.
See: http://www.photosig.com/go/main/help?name=help/copyright [photosig.com]
and
http://www.copyright.gov/ [copyright.gov]
All of the above only holds true in the USA, laws differ around the world.
Re:Microsoft's reply (Score:3, Informative)
I can instead choose to pay both them and a retailer surcharge for a DRM-protected copy of the book?
Isn't that how most retail sales work? (they are often the same price, just the OEM takes a smaller cut for the retailers service) I can buy the same book from oreilly.com [slashdot.org] or amazon.com [slashdot.org] heck soon you will have the choice, buy a kindle DRM'd version, or a non DRM'd version from either as well. The kindle is a great example, you can buy a DRM'd book from amazon and have it loaded onto your device automatically for $9.99, or go to oreilly, buy it without DRM for less, ($7.99) then transfer it to a memory card... I would hate to buy any DRM stuff from Amazon, but to not need a PC in the loop, it may be worth it at times (if you had the device and no PC handy for example.) Same as Itunes, and other music e-tailers. Buy the CD and rip, transfer. or buy the DRM'd crap straight into the thing? both actually have a audience.
Re:Microsoft's reply (Score:5, Informative)
My one single question regarding Google's arrangement is, whether they have an "exclusive" deal, or not.
It's exclusive in the sense that anyone wishing to publish electronically, other than Google, must have copyright contractually assigned by the copyright holder, but Google is no longer bound by copyright laws when choosing to publish books which are not currently being printed (including future books).
The exception is that, if Google rejects a book, the Registry may assign the electronic printing rights, under the same terms, to someone else.
There's a bit (a lot) more to it - copyright owners may, with limitations, stop Google from publishing their books, and with limitations, may set the price of the books. But it binds current and future authors and publishers to file specific forms in specific ways at specific times if they don't want Google sellin' their stuff.
Re:Microsoft's reply (Score:3, Informative)
[quote]My one single question regarding Google's arrangement is, whether they have an "exclusive" deal, or not. Can Gutenberg still scan and distribute a public domain book that Google has scanned? If so - there is NO PROBLEM with Google's arrangement. If so, the I can see a problem.[/quote]
Yes. There is nothing stopping people from:
1) Scanning public domain books and distributing them.
2) Creating similar deals with the Authors' Guild and scanning the exact same books Google does and distributing them.
3) Pushing for better copyright reform which would make all this moot. (which Google fully supports, according to their latest blog post)