A new article forthcoming in the prestigious Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA attempts to estimate the economic impact of Google Book Search on the publishing industry. The study finds no evidence of negative impact and some evidence of a positive impact.
Post Tagged with: "google book search"
Canadian Writers Petition Against Google Book Search Settlement
Canadian writers have banded together to protest against the Google Book Search settlement. The signatories reject the settlement "in its entirety."
Has Someone Hit the Delete Key on Canada’s Digitization Strategy?
Digitization of books has become synonymous over the past year with the Google Book Search project and the class action lawsuit launched in response to the search giant's efforts to create an Internet-based library consisting of millions of books. While the digitizing continues, the legal drama reached an important stage this week when a court in New York closed third-party submissions supporting or criticizing the settlement. The attention on Google Book Search is understandable, yet it has distracted from the broader question of government supported digitization efforts. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) noted that many countries have not been content to leave the digitization of their culture and heritage to Google, instead embarking on plans to create their own digital libraries.
The Friday Forum: Digitizing Books and the Google Book Search Settlement
The potential for a global digital library is increasingly viewed as one of the most exciting opportunities of the Internet age. Countries are working to digitize their works (I wrote four years ago about the possibility of Canada doing so) and the private sector has been active as well. By far the best known – and most contentious – initiative is the Google Book Search initiative. Working with university libraries around the world, Google has been digitizing millions of books. The Google Book Search initiative led to a pair of U.S. lawsuits over whether the plan qualified as fair use, which in turn led to a settlement with implications for authors around the world.
This week's Friday Forum takes a look at the digitizing issue with particular focus on Google Book Search. It starts with Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive and his vision for building a free digital library. The talked was delivered at the EG Conference in 2007.
Two Perspectives on Copyright and Education
A pair of postings this morning provide an interesting, albeit discouraging, contrast between Canada and the United States on the role of the education community and copyright. Howard Knopf highlights the dangers of "excess caution", pointing to Copyright Matters, a document produced by several Canadian education groups. The document adopts […]
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 200: Colin Bennett on the EU’s Surprising Adequacy Finding on Canadian Privacy Law 
Debating the Online Harms Act: Insights from Two Recent Panels on Bill C-63 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 199: Boris Bytensky on the Criminal Code Reforms in the Online Harms Act 
AI Spending is Not an AI Strategy: Why the Government’s Artificial Intelligence Plan Avoids the Hard Governance Questions 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 198: Richard Moon on the Return of the Section 13 Hate Speech Provision in the Online Harms Act
