December 6, 2005
Attend CCC's
'Beyond the Book' Free in DC
The Copyright Clearance
Center is offering TAA members free admission into the next edition
of "Beyond the Book," to be held in Washington DC, Thursday, December
15 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the National Press Club. The discussion
will center on how the ideals of the counterculture have shaped modern
technology and the digital media, while serving as creative inspiration
for a generation of writers, musicians and artists. The event brings
together three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee John Markoff, author of "What
the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer,"
John Leland, author of "Hip: The History," and formerly editor-in-chief
of Details magazine, and Ken Goffman (a.k.a., R.U. Sirius), author of
"Counterculture Through the Ages." To reserve a space, TAA members may
register at no charge online at http://www.copyright.com/Authors/BTBInvite.asp,
or call toll-free 1-800-982-3887, ext. 2420. For more information about
this latest Beyond the Book event, and the range of Copyright Clearance
Center's Beyond the Book programs, visit www.authors.copyright.com/BeyondtheBook
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TAA newsletter
archive now online
A PDF archive of
TAA member newsletters, TAA Report and The Academic Author,
dating back to the summer of 1987, is now online in the TAA Members-Only
Member Center. The archive lists a table of contents for each issue.
Click
here to view the archive in the Members Only section
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Google's plan
based on ability to 'steal' content
By Steve Gillen
As reported earlier
in the TAA newsletter, Google, the world's largest search engine for
internet-accessible information, has undertaken a project it calls Google
Print with the objective of adding the contents of the world's printed
books to its database of searchable content. By any measure, this would
be a praiseworthy contribution to scholarship - an information equalizer
making access to the richest concentrations of recorded knowledge available
from any corner of the planet where internet access can be had.
Steve Gillen
is a member of the TAA Council of Advisors and an attorney concentrating
his practice in publishing and copyright matters. Phone: (513) 455-7647.
E-mail: seg@gdm.com
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There is just one
problem. A substantial part of Google's plan is based on its ability
to steal content from the authors and publishers of hundreds
of thousands of copyrighted works. Several research libraries have been
encouraged by Google to make a pact with the devil by agreeing to provide
Google with access to their entire collections (including works still
under copyright protection) for the purpose of scanning them into a
Google database so that Google can automatically and efficiently serve
up selected excerpts from those works in response to on-line search
inquiries.
I say that Google
is "stealing" content because, although it has agreements with the libraries
to gain access to the works in their collections, Google's plan is to
make an electronic copy of the entirety of each of these works without
the consent of their respective copyright owners, each of whom owns,
to the exclusion of everyone else, the right to authorize the making
of copies of his/her work.. These "intermediate" copies will not be
distributed - Google will limit searcher's access to a few brief snippets
from each work - but they are copies nonetheless and require the consent
of the copyright owner unless the unauthorized use is otherwise excused.
The excuse offered
up by Google is that its use is a legitimate exercise of the fair use
right - the right, statutorily recognized in the United States, to copy
without the consent of the copyright owner limited portions of a copyrighted
work for purposes such as criticism, comment, scholarship, or research,
provided that the use is a fair use.
The legal arguments
are somewhat technical -- the fair use determination is made on a case-by-case
basis, taking into account the specific circumstances of each unauthorized
use and measuring them against four factors set forth in the Copyright
Act - and the interested parties have squared off to make them. On September
20, 2005, the Authors Guild filed on behalf of its author-members and
those similarly situated a class action suit against Google in US District
Court in the Southern District of New York alleging that the Google
Library Project will infringe their copyrights. On October 19, 2005,
a group of publishers filed suit making similar claims against Google
in the same court.
Google, with a market
capitalization currently estimated at in excess of $100 billion, has deep
pockets. The authors have deep convictions. The print publishers have
a vital stake in not being cut out of a segment of the market for their
works that has eroded their traditional base. The courts will tell us
who is right . . . but not in internet time.
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Hull: Authors,
publishers object to Google's 'erroneous intrepretation' of fair-use
law, violation of copyright
TAA Executive Director
Richard Hull sent a letter to the editor of TENNESSEAN.com
in response to Kevin Maney's column criticizing authors and publishers
for not supporting Google's Print Library project. In his response,
Hull said Maney missed a subtle point that, as an author, he should
have gotten: authors' and publishers' objections to Google's Print Library
project center on the company's "erroneous interpretation of fair-use
law and the consequent violation of copyright." Ignoring that, said
Hull, is like him walking into Maney's house and helping himself to
what he finds there unless Maney specifically asks him to put stuff
back and leave.
Read Maney's column
here.
Hull's letter to
the editor:
Kevin Maney's
article on Google's digitizing projects missed a subtle point that,
as an author, he should have gotten.
The objections
by the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and
Text and Academic Authors Association are to Google's erroneous interpretation
of fair-use law, and the consequent violation of copyright. Google,
unlike Yahoo and MSN, offers only an opt-out policy. It does not seek
permission to digitize books from copyright holders, but only offers
not to digitize works if the copyright holder actively objects.
This is like my
walking into Maney's house and helping myself to what I find there
unless he specifically asks me to put stuff back and leave. In most
places such theft could get you arrested.
Maney may well
want his books to be available online, and Google, Yahoo, MSN, and
Amazon all offer resources for him. What he is missing is that their
digitizing his works should be his choice.
Google imposes
an unreasonable burden on those of us who want to control the creation
of copies of our works, and who want to sell hard copies to libraries.
What financial reward do I have if a library subscribes to Google's
service instead of shelving my book?
A clever student
can download successive chunks of books on different computers and
read an entire text on line. Maney's ego may be flattered by such
an action, but it won't serve my members' textbook sales.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
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2006 TAA Convention
to Be Held in Orlando
The TAA Council
decided to move the 2006 TAA Convention from New Orleans to Orlando,
Florida. The convention will be held July 7-8.
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Busy TAA People:
Richard T. Hull
Richard Hull has
recently published the second edition of his textbook reader, Ethical
Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies, with Prometheus Books.
He also has published the work as an e-book under his own copyright
that he markets directly to those wanting a downloadable version: see
it at www.richard-t-hull.com . Hull has also just published volume 6
of his Presidential Addresses of the American Philosophical Association
1901-2000 series, covering the 1950s and containing biographies and
photos, as well as the addresses, of the 30 individuals that served
as presidents of the three divisions of APA during this decade. He was
Contributing Editor to John R. Shook, ed., Dictionary of Modern American
Philosophy (four volumes), just published by Thommes Continuum, and
he contributed the chapter on Reproductive Technology in Alan R. Soble,
ed., Sex from Plato to Paglia, two volumes just being published by Westwood
Press in late November.
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Busy TAA People:
Robert Martinengo
Robert Martinengo
(Ventura, CA) has published an article in the new issue of Accessible
Content magazine about textbooks and students with disabilities. View
the article at: http://www.accessiblecontent.com/samples/atpc/
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New Form Allows
Online Donations to TAA Foundation
TAA has made it
easier than ever to make a donation to the TAA Foundation by creating
a secure online donation form. The form is accessible through the TAA
Foundation page, the TAA Notes page and the online new member/renewal
form. To make an online donation to the TAA Foundation, click
here. Your donation to the TAA Foundation will be matched $1 for
$1 by a $15,000 matching grant from TAA.
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Renew Your Membership
Online!
TAA has just launched
a new online member form that will allow members to renew online using
a secure server. The form can also be used by new members. Check it
out in the TAA Member Center here.
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