In the News
Google's Digital Library Plan Hits Another Snag
By Laura Sydell, NPR
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/18/161324684/googles-digital-library-plan-hits-another-snag
Google's plan to create the world's largest digital library ran into
legal problems when groups of authors sued, to defend the rights to
their work. If that sounds like an old news story, that's because it is.
The lawsuit, now in its 11th year, has run into yet another legal
delay.
When Google set out to scan the world's books, it was ostensibly for high-minded reasons. In an interview a few years ago, co-founder Sergey Brin told me it was part of Google's grand mission to make all the world's information searchable. He didn't want to wait because books can be lost at any moment.
Hopefully, this lawsuit will be resolved before the Internet is ancient. Since 2004, Google has been fighting with the Authors Guild. The Guild claims the company can't scan books without getting permission from the author. Yesterday, a judge put the case on hold while Google appeals the right of the Authors Guild to bring a class action.
U.C. Berkeley law professor Pam Samuelson says Google is confident enough to keep scanning:
But that may also be because Google has reportedly already scanned some 20 million books, now safe from fires - even if the public can't access them. 9/18/2012But the sense that I have, from talking to people, is that maybe they have slowed down a little bit.
