After resuming their controversial book scanning of five major libraries on Tuesday, Google has announced that a number of public domain books (books out of copyright) are now available for browsing online.
“Our partner libraries — the University of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, the New York Public Library, and Oxford — have preserved and nurtured these books through decades of wear and tear, and we’re excited to play a part in ensuring that they, and the knowledge they contain, will be more accessible than ever for decades to come,” writes Google Associate Product Manager Adam Mathes on Google’s weblog.
Listed as examples of complete works available to read in their entirety are books like Henry James’ Daisy Miller, from Harvard’s Henry James collection and the University of Michigan’s copy of The Seventh Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers in the Civil War, 1862-1865.
Access to some works requires a password from a Google Account to help google “enforce” limits placed on the viewing of copyrighted materials.
Though Google used guidelines that consider works published before the 20th century to be “public domain” a quick investigative search for Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and Erasmus’ “In Praise of Folly” both returned entries in copyright, and neither seemed available beyond the proposed “snippet.” Google was not immediately available for comment for clarity on the matter.
Further, the bottom of both entries carried ISBN numbers, a detail of negotiations between Google and the Association of American Publishers that had reached an impasse before the AAP filed suit. No comment came from Google on this matter, either.
In related news, two former Congressmen, Pat Schroeder and Bob Barr, co-wrote a scathing article for the Washington Times in response to Google’s ambition to scan and index published works.
“Google’s position essentially amounts to a license to steal, so long as it returns the loot upon a formal request by their victims. This is precisely why Google’s argument has no basis in U.S. intellectual property law or jurisprudence. Just because Google is huge, it should not be allowed to change the law.”
