Get Ready! Google Books Coming Your Way
Eau Claire Wisconsin Real Estate
I remember a few years ago hearing about this and it interested me a lot. I love literature. When I was in college my Major was English Literature and I Minored in Creative Writing. Everyone always asked “and you’re in real estate??!!” I sure am! And the skills I learned pay off each and every day.
Well now Google Books should be coming soon. The basic premise is to put out of print or hard to find books online. It will act as a way of preserving them and offer otherwise unattainable access. There has been a huge trend to put everything in print online. I for one cant wait. I don’t like reading e-books but I know a lot of people do. I guess I am old fashioned and like them in my hand!
Anyways check this out:
Google settles with book publishers, becomes bookseller
By John Timmer | Published: October 28, 2008 – 10:47AM CT
Google’s long-running legal battle with the US publishing industry came to an unexpected screeching halt this morning, as the parties announced a settlement that, pending approval by a US District Court, will see the two sides cooperate on online access to copyrighted books. The settlement contains a number of provisions that clarify how libraries can access works that remain within the copyright period, and will see the formation of a group dedicated to identifying current copyright holders. But the most striking aspect of the agreement is that it turns Google into a bookseller, peddling online access to out-of-print, but still-in-copyright works.
The copyright holders’ lawsuit targeted Google Books for its use of material from copyrighted works. At the time of the settlement, they were represented by The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, while Google consulted many of the university libraries it is cooperating with when crafting the agreement. Not surprisingly, then, the settlement seems to have something for nearly everyone.
The agreement doesn’t cover books that are currently in print and therefore making money for publishers. Those books can still be marketed through the book search via Google’s Partners program. Books that have had their copyrights expire are likewise unaffected. What it does cover is what Google’s Chief Legal Counsel, David Drummond, calls “the vast majority of books in existence”: those that are in copyright, but out-of-print.
For those books, the agreement will see libraries in the US get free and unfettered access to the entire contents of the book. Large organizations, such as university libraries, can get access to the full collection by paying a subscription fee. Perhaps the most striking feature of the program, however, is that individual users can pay a fee to get online access to individual books that are no longer in print. Not only is this a boon for book lovers, who can now get access to books that might be otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain, it appears to have the potential to turn Google into a major book retailer.
The publishers are clearly not coming away empty-handed. Revenue from sales of books that they aren’t even printing—books the publishers did their best to ensure weren’t digitized in the first place—will now start flowing into their balance sheets. But the agreement goes beyond that; Google will pay $125 million to establish a Book Rights Registry which will try to determine who owns the copyright to out-of-print books so that they can be paid for any sales. As publishers have merged, gone out of business, and sold off properties over the years, this ownership may be pretty obscure, so the new Registry may play an essential function in ensuring that the right party cashes the checks.
All the parties, while mentioning their own vested interests that were served by the agreement, rightly tipped a hat to the big winners: readers, who might otherwise not be able to access some of this material. Roy Blount, head of the Authors Guild, stated, “As a reader and researcher, I’ll be delighted to stop by my local library to browse the stacks of some of the world’s great libraries.” Sergey Brin of Google concurred: “While this agreement is a real win-win for all of us, the real victors are all the readers.
Details are a bit sparse on some implementation aspects right now, but it’s hard to find fault with the spirit of the agreement. The primary limit from a reader’s perspective may be fact that Google’s book viewing interface can be a bit clunky and leaves a reader tethered to a computer. The alternative is for Google to negotiate some sort of DRM scheme for their scans, but that would appear to go against the company’s principles.
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