Google's Card Catalog Should Be Left Open

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: EFF Press <press () eff org>
Date: September 21, 2005 4:03:29 PM EDT
To: presslist () eff org
Subject: [E-B] EFF: Google's Card Catalog Should Be Left Open
Reply-To: press () eff org


Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Contact:

Fred von Lohmann
   Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   fred () eff org
   +1 415 436-9333 x123 (office), +1 415 215-6087 (cell)

Google's Card Catalog Should Be Left Open

San Francisco, CA - Yesterday, the Authors Guild filed a
class-action copyright infringement suit against Google
over its Google Print library project.  Working with major
university libraries, Google Print aims to make thousands
of books searchable via the Web, allowing people to search
for key words or phrases in books. The public may browse
the full text of public domain materials in the process of
such a search, but only a few sentences of text around the
search term in books still covered by copyright.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) applauds Google's
effort to create the digital equivalent of a library card
catalog, and believes the company has a strong case.

"Just as libraries don't need to pay publishers when they
create a card catalog, neither should Google or other
search engines be required to when they create an improved
digital equivalent," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred
von Lohmann.

In defending the lawsuit, Google is relying on the
copyright principle of fair use, which allows the public to
copy works without having to ask permission or pay
licensing fees to copyright holders. EFF believes Google is
likely to prevail on its defense. One key point in Google's
favor is that Google Print is a transformative use of these
books -- the company is creating a virtual card catalog to
assist people in finding relevant books, rather than
creating replacements for the books themselves.

In addition, it is almost certain that Google Print will
boost, rather than hurt, the market for the copyrighted
books. "It's easy to see how Google Print can stimulate
demand for books that otherwise would lay undiscovered in
library stacks," said von Lohmann. "It's hard to see how it
could hurt publishers or authors."

For additional legal analysis, EFF recommends the white
paper, "The Google Print Library Project: A Copyright
Analysis," recently published by noted DC copyright
attorney Jonathan Band of Policy Bandwidth.

The Google Print Library Project: A Copyright Analysis:
http://www.policybandwidth.com/doc/googleprint.pdf

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_09.php#003994

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


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