In the beginning Google said that they would not allow the download and printing of books that are no longer protected by copyright [is this true? I need to confirm that], but that changed today. Google is now allowing people to download books whose copyright has expired: Here’s the story on Techcrunch.com.
When the copyright on a book expires, the work enters the public domain, which means that anyone can then take the opportunity to re-publish it, bind it, do whatever. So what’s the big fuss about Google offering up these works for download and print? Nothing. I think it’s great. If the work is in public domain, then they have the opportunity to digitize the works and mine them for revenue. It’s a commercial interest. The more digitized content they have available, the more pages they have to put advertising on, the more ways they have to make money.
The only concern I have is how are they determining when a book’s copyright has expired? What happens if they release it and the copyright hasn’t expired? The owner of the copyright has the right to gain financially from that work. It’s not Google’s turn. And once you’ve released the files online, there really isn’t a way to pull them back.
I suppose copyright law could change, there are certainly those advocating for that. But at the moment it is what it is, so I wonder what the plan is. Likely it will cost Google less to apologize and pay out if they do accidently release a copyrighted work vs. implementing a system to ensure accuracy.
How do you feel about Google?