I blogged years ago and voiced my disappointment of Google taking books, scanning them, databasing the contents of the books, and then making these books available to end users in "chucks". I am a computer book author and have written 18 books (two more on the way) and I wrote in my old blog post about why I didn't care for this move and how it really hurt me as an author. Back then, I wrote about the issue:
"The problem is (at least for publishers and authors) is that let's say there is someone trying to figure out how to use the new XmlDataSource control and they enter that word into Google Print and get directed to my book to a specific page where this is discussed. The reader on Google can then scroll through the couple of pages reading up on this control and then they are done. Granted, they didn't scroll through the entire book, but they are able to get what they need from a publication without needing to purchase this publication.
I do like people using my books to learn and to help them do their jobs, but at the same time - it takes me 4-5 months to write a book ... it is a ALOT of work and I would hope that people would purchase a title I have written instead of pulling what they need from it from Google for free. You don't get paid much as an author, but it sure is nice to get a bit of a reward for all the hard work."
John Wiley stepped up to the plate and joined in on the lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement. Google was arguing that they should be allowed to do this for the end user as they are only showing excepts and not the entire book. This move, if it had gone through, is quite detrimental to authors and in turn to end users. In the end, Google lost the case and will have to pay $125 million USD for the past infringements. Side note to my editor: "How much of this do I get?" ;)
In any case, a deal has been established to create a registry that will still allow Google to proceed with their plans, but charge end users for the "chucks" of books that they view. Some argue that this will change how people will consume books and a move to more digital consumption of books. It defiantly is an interesting notion.
Related Posts:
Business Week: Google Settles with Authors
Blog Post from Oct 20 2005: John Wiley & Pearson Sue Google
Print | posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 11:22 AM