A FAQ on Google's Book Scanning Project

Posted on September 19, 2005

The Associated Press has put together a FAQ about the now-infamous Google Total Book Copyright Infringement Project. You know, the one where Google is scanning into its database every book ever written without the authors' or publishers' permission while paying no royalties and letting everyone read the authors' work for free? Here's a snippet:

Q. Is this legal?

A. Google believes it is under "fair use" provisions of copyright law. Google is giving publishers the option to specify titles they do not want scanned, similar to its approach in letting Web site owners opt out of the search engine index.

Publishers, however, believe that even if Google is limiting display of copyright works, the very act of copying without permission is illegal.

The outcome could hinge on the interpretation of a 2003 federal appeals court ruling in Kelly vs. Arriba Soft. The court held that a search engine may create smaller versions, or thumbnails, of images under fair use. With books, Google is reproducing the entire work, though a court may factor in Google's limited display and any new functionality the copying enables.

The project is still being fought in court by publishers. Starving authors would be fighting it too, if only they could afford the $800/hour attorneys the complex case requires.

---

---