Asia in war of words over Google Books
By Indrajit Basu
KOLKATA - Much has been made already about Google's book digitization project,
which aims to scan and digitize almost all books published worldwide, making
them searchable online. But as this ambitious yet equally controversial project
prepares for a crucial hearing in a United States court on February 18, the
global crusade against Google Books is intensifying.
Following stiff opposition from publishers and authors from primarily the
Western world, India, too, threw down the gauntlet this month when 15 Indian
authors and publishers filed objections with a New York District Court. With
this, India became the second - after China - country in Asia to red-pencil the
Google Book plan.
However, libraries, copyright holders and countries like the US, France,
Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia and even
consumers are analyzing the ramifications of this audacious venture. Many are
unsure whether Google's promise of a global digital library will really change
the face of information access in the world. Or will it be the end of the 150
year-old concept of copyright and intellectual property rights?
In 2004, Google began scanning millions of books under copyright protection by
reaching an agreement with several universities in the US. Under the
initiative, known as the Google Library Project, Google digitized snippets from
these books and put them online.
But angered by Google's actions, in 2005, the Authors Guild (AG) in the US and
the Association of American Publishers (AAP) slapped Google with a suit
alleging copyright infringement.
Instead of going to the courts, Google decided to negotiate and reached a
settlement with the two groups for a payout of US$125 million. It also agreed
to form an independent Book Rights Registry to share the revenue of the
digitization with the authors and publishing companies agreeing to digitize
their books.
Although that appeased the AG and the AAP, much of the rest of the world was
still displeased. Objections started pouring in from countries like France,
Germany, etc and even major companies, including Amazon, forcing Google to
craft yet another Google Book Settlement 2.0 (GBS 2.0) in November 2009.
This settlement now covers works that had been registered with the US Copyright
Office by January 2009, or had been published in Australia, Canada or the
United Kingdom. The District New York court also assumed the responsibility of
scrutinizing and approving GBS 2.0 after hearing all objections that had been
filed with the court by the deadline of January 28, 2010. This court is
scheduled to pass its judgment on February 18 on whether Google can implement
its book digitization project or not.
Objections to this amended settlement seem to be getting stronger from authors
and publications communities of the world. "Although some cosmetic alterations
were made, the substance is very much the same," said Siddharth Arya, the legal
counsel for Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) and the Federation
of Indian Publishers (FIP).
"Google has already acquired a huge database of illegally scanned books and
will continue to have access to this database, created without the copyright
holder's authorization. The agreement does not mention anywhere that Google
will exclude or delete this database from its servers."
Critics from all over the world allege that while GBS 2.0 has narrowed its
scope to only books that are either registered with the United States Copyright
Office or published in the UK, Canada and Australia, it still impacts the rest
of the world as any author published in the aforementioned countries is
included in the settlement.
Besides, Google in this settlement retained its older proposal of retaining its
rights to have access to orphan works (works whose copyright holders cannot be
located); and for the millions of orphan books that Google has already scanned.
According to GBS 2.0, say experts, Google assumes rights to exploit orphan
works without risk of anyone coming forward and suing them for infringement.
"The proposals are preposterous," says Arya, "Google is emphatically trying to
undo 150 years of copyright legislation that has developed worldwide; they are
trying to circumvent national and international copyright laws in the name of
innovation. That is how smart Google is."
Globally, publishers resent that the search engine giant is capitalizing on the
lack of understanding of GBS in the global marketplace. They say Google is
trying to spread systematic misinformation within the author and publishing
community to extend its global dominance of its search engine in the publishing
marketplace.
"Using broadly-worded loopholes and carefully-crafted exceptions, the parties
have structured the settlement agreement to facilitate their own collusion over
the future of digital books. Key elements of the settlement remain undisclosed
to either the public or to this court," said the New York-based Open Book
Alliance, in memorandum to the District Court of New York that is scheduled to
hear GBS 2.0.
Formed by an association of persons and companies affected by Google's book
digitization project, Open Book Alliance is working to counter this project and
to ensure that any mass book digitization effort promotes the "long-term
benefits for consumers rather than isolated commercial interests".
Nevertheless, although Google's book digitization touches the sensitive issue
of copyright in the Internet era, as a major upside, it also brings tremendous
value to consumers, libraries, scholars and particularly students.
For instance, according to the United States Student Association (USSA), a
non-profit organization that represents more than four million college and
university students across America, Google's book digitization could
dramatically expand access to millions of books to any student regardless of
socio-economic background and identity.
"One of the biggest problems facing students and schools today is the quickly
rising cost of higher education. Declining endowments and budget shortfalls are
forcing schools to cut spending on, among other things, their libraries," says
USSA. "These [types of] services will have a transformative impact on research
and scholarship and will help level the educational playing field."
For developing countries particularly this project brings rare, out-of-print
works into the public domain. "It democratizes knowledge and makes learning
from what we already know but find difficult to access a painless process.
Quite simply, Google will build the world's largest integrated library, with
the advantage of digital navigation and easy manipulation," says brand expert
Santosh Desai.
That may be true, "Yet, the fact remains that thousands of copyright holders
who hold non-English rights will get shortchanged as well," says Arya.
Of the more than 10 million books that Google has digitized until now, Arya
claims that as many as 10,000 tittles are books written in various Indian
languages, "whose authors are not even aware that their works have been
digitized and could soon be accessible digitally".
Similarly, according to the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) that
claims Google has scanned about 18,000 books by Chinese authors, this project
is a clear violation of Chinese writers' copyright. Google claims that its
digital repertoire consists of tittles in more than 100 languages.
"The company should show a clear attitude to admitting its infringement and
then negotiate with Chinese authors sincerely," said CWWCS deputy director
general Zhang Hongbo in a comment to the media.
Google, though, sees all these arguments and criticisms as useless. "As a book
lover and someone who believes in giving more people access to more books, I
can't tell you how excited I am about how this settlement [GBS 2.0] if approved
will change the way how people can get access to millions of books including
those to which they have not had access before," said an engineer from Google
Books.
Indrajit Basu is a correspondent for Asia Times Online based in Kolkata.
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