A recent hearing on the Google Book deal has led to Google agreeing to new terms of a proposed settlement with US publishers that will affect the kind of, and amount of, books it can catalogue. Now, books that are commercially available and under copyright in Europe, won’t be considered out of print. This means that Google will not be free to scan and catalogue them into its Book Search.
“We listen to all concerns of stakeholders around the globe and we work hard to achieve the common goal of bringing back to life millions of lost books in a way that serves the interests of all,” said Bill Echikson, a spokesman for Google in Brussels, of the new terms.
The hearing was organized by the European Commission in Brussels. The European Commission’s goal for the hearing was to hear how the deal, reached last year between Google and US publishers, would affect EU states.
Google, for its part, has been working with several European libraries to scan and catalogue books whose copyright has run out. These new terms could put a stop to this practice shortly.
In an invitation to the hearing, the European Commission stated that it was seeking to find out exactly how many European works would be affected by the settlement, and to what extent.
Google wrote on its blog that this provided them with an excellent platform to clear up misunderstandings about the deal.
They explained that the hearing showed that European libraries, authors, and publishers, are grappling with the issue of how to open up access to out-of-copyright books. “What’s really at stake are the fate of the vast majority of books — by some estimate up to 80 percent of the total – which are in copyright out of print and hard to locate.” wrote the Google team.
Meanwhile, a group of authors and publishers in the US belonging to the National Coalition of Authors have expressed their opposition to the proposed settlement. They are arguing that the agreement undermines privacy rights for both authors and readers.
The group expressed concerns about Google collecting personally identifying information about people who purchase books from their Book Search. This, they argued, could create a “chilling effect” which could reduce readership of the authors’ publications.
They suggested much more limited information collection, whereby the user could control their personal information stored by Google, and they asked for system transparency.
Certainly it appears that Google still has a bit of a battle on its hands to win the public, authors, and publishers over on its Book Search.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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