Et tu, Google?

I love Google. They’re a seemingly altruistic company and my search-engine of choice. They offer Google Earth (where you can literally zoom down and see me typing this), Google Translate, and the Google Books Library Project. Google what? Wait, what the heck is that, you ask?

The Google Books Library Project is an ongoing effort to digitize massive libraries, making them available to the searchable world. The only problem is, many of those books are copyrighted. (Say it ain’t so, Google).

What does this mean? Well, on the one hand, it looks a lot like the Napster of the written word. And I can see the reasoning of Napster et al. Metallica sells a CD for $18.99 that costs $.49 to produce—in that economy, the consumer is really getting hosed so that Metallica and their label can live like…well…live like rock stars. I get that. And thankfully, iTunes provides a digital break-even point that seems to keep everyone playing nicely in the sandbox.

Kajagoogoo, unavailable for comment on the pending Google Book Search Settlement.But Google is digitizing books that are mainly out of print. That’s like Napster giving away Kajagoogoo’s one and only hit. And who knows, Kajagoogoo might really need the money.

I’m torn on this whole thing, because I do a lot of historical research and stumble across fantastic, obscure, out-of-print books—scanned by the kindly folks at Google. But then I go out and buy them. (Usually).

Comments

[Sandy Ladignon]

I've snooped around the Google books library. For books with active copyrights, they only show the bibliography page and a random snippet of the book. I don't see this as a threat. More like free advertising. Potential buyers can easily search the book in google and read some pages and see if they like the book, and then order it online. Most online booksellers do this. The full books they have available are those that are already out of copyright. This is also good, since most people will have access to the classics or obscure books.

[Jamie]

A lot of books will fall out of print, but their copyright is still active. And those books still get scanned. I stumble over them all the time when doing historical research. But those are mainly academic non-fiction type books, so no one really cares.

I can't help but wonder about books like Revolutionary Road, which was out of print for decades. What books today are being scanned, that might find new life either because of Google, or be hurt by Google?

[Dara]

I too find tons of historical books on there. For the most part though, the books I've looked up have pages that aren't viewable. And they generally be the pages I need :P So I do a frantic library search, which can be hit or miss.

I'd go out and buy the books only they're sometimes so obscure and hard to find, they cost over $100 on Amazon :P In that instance, Google books is great--well, at least the pages that are scanned are great.

But there have been books that I've actually gone out and bought because of Google books (all academic type books but very useful!). I wouldn't have bought them if I didn't get to see a preview of it. I see it kind of like a limited library book--you don't get an all-access pass (at least not on the books I've seen) but you get to see enough of the book to determine whether or not you want to actually buy it.

[Eric Stallsworth]

First off, two points for mentioning Kajagoogoo. Wow, what a picture.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I sit on this issue. I mean, of course copyright should be respected and upheld. But there is something to be said with the power of Google, and it's ability to influence others. There have been many a time I stumbled on something using Google and went out to look for it in print. If the work is out of print, how would I have ever had the opportunity to see it? I don't know what the answer is, but maybe we need a section of Google you can pay for that allows you to search and/or purchase digital copies of works no longer in print? Nice food for thought, Jamie.