[WikiEN-l] Google Books settlement reached

[Gwern Branwen]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Carcharoth <carcharothwp at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 2:17 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 3:34 AM, Carcharoth <carcharothwp at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> It seems a settlement has been reached between Google Books and those
>>> taking action against it. Anyone here know what this means in terms of
>>> what we do and how we use Google Books?
>>>
>>> http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
>>>
>>> Carcharoth
>>
>> I can't speak to the issues of exclusivity everyone was worrying
>> about, but it seems to be a win for Google Books in respect to orphan
>> works:
>>
>> http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/#3
>>
>>     "# In-copyright but out-of-print books
>>
>>     Out-of-print books aren’t actively being published or sold, so
>> the only way to procure one is to track it down in a library or used
>> bookstore. When this agreement is approved, every out-of-print book
>> that we digitize will become available online for preview and
>> purchase, unless its author or publisher chooses to "turn off" that
>> title. We believe it will be a tremendous boon to the publishing
>> industry to enable authors and publishers to earn money from volumes
>> they might have thought were gone forever from the marketplace."
>>
>> Notice that it's opt-out, which for a real orphan work means no one
>> will opt-out. Preview is better than nothing, for us. (It was
>> unrealistic to expect Google to be able to offer full downloads.)
>
> My question would be: if Google can charge for full downloads of their
> scans of orphan (out-of-print) works still in copyright, can others do
> the same? If I had a copy of a work still in copyright but
> out-of-print, and scanned it, and sold the scans, and then stopped if
> the publisher contact me (i.e. asked for it to be "switched off") what
> am I doing differently to what Google are doing?
>
> For me, the exciting thing is being able to get full downloads, even
> if at a price, rather than ordering through a rare or secondhand book
> website. Dunno what that Google price will be though...
>
> Carcharoth

I don't think they're offering downloads, per se.

"When this agreement is approved, every out-of-print book that we
digitize will become available online for preview and purchase, unless
its author or publisher chooses to "turn off" that title."

"When this agreement is approved, every out-of-print book that we
digitize will become available online for preview and purchase, unless
its author or publisher chooses to "turn off" that title."

I don't remember ever seeing any downloads offered for any works -
just the dead-tree versions. Which implies that the orphan works will
get the same treatment.

(Still, if they're showing the entire orphan work, means one can
download it with some scripting.)

-- 
gwern