September 11, 2007
Playing Craps With Copyright?
Folks following Google’s ambitious book-scanning project might want to check out First Monday’s interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan, a strong critic of the “Googlization” of libraries and copyright law. (The interview is available as a podcast and as a written transcript.)
Mr. Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, argues that Google’s library-scanning project could cause a copyright catastrophe by casting doubt on fair-use doctrine. Fair use is typically threshed out on a case-by-case basis, the scholar says, but Google is asking courts to issue broad rulings on the doctrine:
But to lay this huge experiment, this many millions of books on a rather rickety and unpredictable system like fair use, is actually very unfair to fair use. And what I¹m afraid of is that Google will certainly lose in court, and what will happen is courts will generate an indelicate view of fair use, a highly restricted view of fair use and will ultimately reign in a lot of future experiments.
Of course, plenty of college libraries have already signed on with Google’s digitization project, and more institutions will certainly follow suit. Should colleges be taking a more circumspect approach to Google Book Search? —Brock Read
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All systems must be tested and either altered or re-affirmed. This is no different, and there is no doom in exploring these boundaries.
— Sol Sep 11, 04:46 PM #
The next thing you know they’ll be placing music on the internet! Just think of the ramification’s. Oh wait…....
— Michael Cassidy Sep 11, 10:43 PM #
Mr. Vaidhyanathan raises a fair point concerning fair use. First, I think author’s have the right to protect the fruits of their intellectual labor. However, if Google does what it claims and only produces a few lines of a written work and not the complete work, I am inclined to support Google. I am, as of yet, unpersuaded by Siva Vaidhyanathan’s quantity vs. quality argument. I understand his concern regarding the possible ordering of search inquiries, but I don’t think it is in Google’s interest to do a poor job scanning materials (Vaidhyanathan is worried about missing pages), and it seems to me that the ranking of libraries (law, medical, etc.) is based heavily on volume (and unique collections). I will be interested in the court’s decision.
— Paul Thelen Sep 12, 06:44 AM #
Vaidhyanathan was not just concerned about the ramifications of copyright law and the quality of the scanning. In the podcast, one of his primary concerns seems to be that Google is a corporation. He seems to believe the scanning is a good idea, it is just something that would be better off in the hands of our libraries…who do not stand to benefit financially from this project. The scariest thing about Google is that there are no laws dictating that the information it turns up is good information— the best information given the keywords I put in. I don’t want my access to information to be run by corporate interests. Go ahead and put in a couple of keywords on Google right now and see how many non-educational for- profit sites come up. Our info access is filtered…allowing Google to be the new mega library is a dangerous idea.
— Aaron Lohmeyer Sep 12, 01:01 PM #
The library scanning project can be used in a positive manner if monitored closely. Copyright infringements must be protected.
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
— William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Sep 12, 01:02 PM #
Agreed, but who to do the monitoring?
— Rob Sep 13, 04:31 PM #