Google is always controversial, and nowhere more than with their decision to index “all of the world’s information” and to put the content of ALL BOOKS online. That certainly is an ambitious project, and Google is known for being ambitious. But not everyone is happy with their vision, and alternative ideas are coming to the fore.
Google’s restrictions on its digital book copies stem in part from the company’s decision to scan copyrighted material without explicit permission. Google wants to ensure only small excerpts from the copyrighted material appear online – snippets that the company believes fall under “fair use” protections of U.S. law.
Since Google is planning on making their search engine the only one to be able to use the scanned books, the questions of fair practice take on greater significance.
The Open Content Alliance might have some answers. Their alternative approach is to only scan books where they have written permission, or where the copyright has expired. That does seem to be a particularily more noble goal.