Google Books Library Project: For Good or For Profit?
Google’s quest to digitize millions of books from major libraries around the world has faced ongoing opposition. Last year, Google finally settled a class action lawsuit brought against it by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.
Basically, Google will pay authors and publishers $125 million and set up a book registry to compensate copyright owners. In exchange, Google will be given the go-ahead to digitize and “share” book content. For works that are in print and in copyright, Google can show preview pages and enable purchase, either by linking to booksellers like Amazon or through Google’s own e-bookstore (set to launch late this year). For out-of-print works not actively being sold, Google can show previews and sell the book itself. The proceeds, minus operating costs, will be held at the book registry, in case ownership is claimed later on. Lastly, for books out of copyright, Google can enable users to download or read the full text online. Authors or publishers can have their books removed at any time.
A court hearing is scheduled for October 7 to finalize the settlement, and critics, like the Open Book Alliance (which includes Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo!, among other groups) have already filed their objections. Whatever happens, the potential impact to both the print and digital industries is significant. Consider, for example:
Will this give Google de facto monopoly to digitize and sell orphan books?
Under the settlement, Google has blanket license to digitize and sell “orphan” books, or those still under copyright, but whose rights holders are unknown or cannot be found. As Google is the only provider covered by the license, would-be competitors would have to negotiate their own rights to digitize individual orphan works. As this could take years and involve enormous costs, there’s no foreseeable competition for now (in fact, Microsoft gave up its own scanning efforts years ago), effectively giving Google free rein. While critics acknowledge that this gives readers a chance to access works that otherwise would have been difficult or impossible to find, some fear Google’s power would be unchecked. In an interview with The New York Times, Robert Darnton, head of the Harvard University library system, says Google could be free to “raise the price to unbearable levels.”
Will Google gain an insurmountable advantage in search and advertising dollars?
Google says that any time users do a Web search, they’re also searching Google’s book index, and relevant hits will appear in search results. Opponents like Open Alliance say the settlement gives Google an unfair advantage, because Google essentially uses the scanned data (including that from orphan books) to improve the “artificial intelligence” behind its services, including its search and advertising products. Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, dismissed arguments that scale makes a search engine better. However, when it comes to Google’s translation capabilities, he told tech publication ZDNet Asia that the more copies of bilingual books that Google has access to, the more it can perfect its translation algorithm. This, in turn, improves Google’s services.
How will Google’s vision of a “digital book world” impact the industry?
At a recent talk at the Computer History Museum, Engineering Director for Google Books Dan Clancy emphasized the need for booksellers to adapt to the changing environment by offering digital copies of books in addition to print. He laid out Google’s vision for the future (as reported by media publication BayNewser) as: 1) Books will be stored in and accessed from the “cloud” (meaning, the Web); 2) There should be diversity in your choice of retailers (meaning, not just brick-and-mortar, but also online stores); and 3) Consumers should be able to read books on any device.
Google says it will work with any e-reader provider, and has in fact made its books available to Sony and Barnes & Noble e-readers. This could potentially hurt Amazon and its Kindle e-reader, which currently leads the market (per tech research and advisor iSuppli), especially as Google beefs up its library, and opens up its own e-bookstore.
But the implications don’t stop there. For instance, what will it mean to have books in the “cloud”? Could data on users’ reading habits be vulnerable to computer hackers or unscrupulous government officials? What will be the dominant format that will be used to make books readable on any device?
The verdict? There’s no question that Google’s plans could benefit researchers, readers and even authors and publishers. And certainly, one cannot expect pure altruism from a for-profit corporation. But as Google moves forward, many are anxious to see what changes we’ll be facing in the industry, and where exactly the scales would tip — for the better good, or simply for Google’s?
