Archive for the 'Google Books' Category
Google’s book project may change copyright law
March 16th, 2010San Jose Mercury News – “Sometime in the near future, a federal judge will decide whether Google can proceed with its plan to create a digital library and bookstore out of millions of old books scanned from libraries around the world. Google Book Search has already spawned a class-action lawsuit, and now, a surge of [...]
A digital renaissance: partnering with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage
March 10th, 2010Google Blog – “Today we’re announcing an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage that will push this vision forward. Working with the National Libraries of Florence and Rome, we’ll digitize up to a million out-of-copyright works. The libraries will select the works to be digitized from their collections, which include a wealth of [...]
Google’s digital library faces key hurdles
March 8th, 2010Mercury News – “Sometime in the near future, a federal judge will decide whether Google can proceed with its plan to create a digital library and bookstore out of millions of old books scanned from libraries around the world. Google Book Search has already spawned a class-action lawsuit, and now, a surge of opposition from [...]
Decimal Points: The impact of Google Books
March 8th, 2010Greensboro News Record – “Although Greensboro may be abuzz these days about luring Google here to build an ultra-fast broadband Internet system, folks may be less aware of another Google project that quite literally could revolutionize the way we access information from books.”
See also, “Google Books transports readers all over the printed universe.”
Google Book Search Settlement: Updating the Numbers
February 24th, 2010EFF has two interesting posts.
The Time Has Come to Protect Reader Privacy
February 18th, 2010Blog of Rights – “Today, Google and the authors and publishers who sued Google are hoping that United States District Court Judge Denny Chin will approve their settlement and allow Google to launch the world’s largest digital library and bookstore combined.”
See also, this press release from the ACLU
Google digital library faces outcry at NYC hearing
February 18th, 2010AP – “U.S. District Judge Denny Chin already has read more than 500 submissions about a $125 million settlement aimed at ending a pair of 2005 lawsuits brought by authors and publishers and clearing legal obstacles to a gigantic online home for digital books. On Thursday, he was to hear statements from interested parties before [...]
Harry Potter and the great Google onslaught
February 13th, 2010Guardian – “The bunfight over Google’s library project only serves to remind us that intellectual property battles are nothing new”
Next chapter in digital book deal: Google vs. DOJ
February 13th, 2010AP – “Determined to create the world’s largest digital library, Google Inc. is betting it knows more about U.S. antitrust and copyright laws than the government regulators enforcing them. The Internet search leader took an audacious step toward realizing its book ambitions late Thursday with a 67-page brief filed in New York federal court.”
More here
Gripes over Google Books go technical
February 11th, 2010CNet – “A number of parties have objected to the revised settlement, most notably the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a “statement of interest”…on February 4. The department still believes that the judge should not approve the ASA, but the direction and rhetoric of its statement suggests a considerably muted set of complaints. The [...]
Justice Dept. Criticizes Latest Google Book Deal
February 4th, 2010NYT – “In another blow to Google’s plan to create a giant digital library and bookstore, the Justice Department on Thursday said that a class-action settlement between the company and groups representing authors and publishers had significant legal problems, even after recent revisions.”
Read the filing.
Authors cry foul over Google ‘rights grab’
February 4th, 2010Guardian – “Proposed settlement could prove to be one of the most important agreements in digital publishing”
Stanford signs Google Book Search agreement, endorses court settlement
February 3rd, 2010Stanford University News – “Google agreement expands digital scanning of millions of Stanford library books.”
Google Book Search Settlement 2.0: the Latest Scorecard
January 29th, 2010An update from the Chronicle
Authors threaten to boycott Google Books
January 27th, 2010Times Online – “J K Rowling, Philip Pullman and other British authors are threatening to boycott Google’s new digital library. The financial deal offered to authors by Google only applies to certain titles and has become a flashpoint between the online giant and those who say it is violating copyright in its quest to create [...]
Steinbeck and Guthrie Families Now Supports Google Book Plan
January 22nd, 2010NYT – “In a statement released Thursday by the Authors Guild, one of the parties to the settlement, Gail Steinbeck, the wife of Thomas Steinbeck, the author’s son, said “the majority of the problems that we found to be troubling have been addressed.”
Google Apologizes to Chinese Authors
January 11th, 2010NYT – “Google has agreed to hand over a list of books by Chinese authors that it has scanned in recent years, company executives said on Monday, in an apparent effort to placate writers who say their works were digitized without their permission.”
Google faces China lawsuit over book scanning
December 29th, 2009AP – “A Chinese novelist is suing Google Inc. for scanning her work into its online library. Mian Mian, a counterculture writer known for her lurid tales of sex, drugs and nightlife, filed suit in October after the U.S. search giant scanned her latest book, “Acid House.”
Europe vs. Google: The Next Chapter
December 11th, 2009Time – “Google may be valued at more than $185 billion and boast millions of users, but that doesn’t mean the Internet giant is any match for the diminutive French President Nicolas Sarkozy.”
Nicolas Sarkozy seeks to fend off Google’s threat to French culture
December 9th, 2009Times Online – “Google’s plans to provide digital versions of classic books over the internet have run into trouble in France after President Sarkozy vowed to spend hundreds of millions of euros to see off what he regards as a threat to the country’s cultural heritage.”
Open access and the Google book settlement
December 2nd, 2009From Peter Suber
Amazon.com Fails to Get Judge to Reject Google Pact
December 2nd, 2009Bloomberg – “U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York yesterday rejected Amazon.com’s argument that the settlement is “doomed from the start and fails to satisfy even the low standard for preliminary approval.” He said Amazon.com can make its arguments during a Feb. 18 hearing to determine if the agreement should be granted final approval.”
Google and the New Digital Future
November 25th, 2009New York Review of Books – “Google has by now digitized some ten million books. On what terms will it make those texts available to readers? That is the question before Judge Chin. If he construes the case narrowly, according to precedents in class-action suits, he could conclude that none of the parties had been [...]
Google Book Scan FAIL
November 15th, 2009Heh
Google Books + Droid
November 15th, 2009A Flickr set from John Blyberg
He also put a post up
Modifications to the Google Books Settlement
November 14th, 2009Google – “The changes we’ve made in our amended agreement address many of the concerns we’ve heard (particularly in limiting its international scope), while at the same time preserving the core benefits of the original agreement: opening access to millions of books while providing rightsholders with ways to sell and control their work online. You [...]
Google, book publishers to reveal new settlement
November 13th, 2009AP – “The future of Google’s plans to sell millions of books online could begin to take shape Friday. Google Inc. and book publishers are expected to show a federal judge in New York a new settlement in the copyright lawsuit over Google’s book-scanning project.
In Google Book Case, a Request for More Time
November 9th, 2009NYTimes.com – “The parties to the Google book settlement, which would legalize the creation of a vast library of digital books, have asked the judge overseeing a revision of the agreement for an extension to this Friday, Nov. 13.”
Writers stuck on apology over Google copyright dispute
November 4th, 2009China Daily – “Chinese writers Wednesday said they appreciated search engine firm Google’s move to talk with them, but maintained their demand for an apology for copyright violation.”
Chinese Authors Object to Google’s Book Scanning
October 30th, 2009NYT – “A long-running dispute over Google’s efforts to digitize books has spread this month to China, where authors have banded together to demand that their works be protected from what they call unauthorized copying.”
