They don’t even need to make a single copy, they can simply digest the book and build a concordance out of it.

“Sure, they’re copying the entire book, but they’re only providing small selections.”

Derek, why does Google need to copy the entire work if they’re only intending to “display a few pages from those books”? I think you need to at least address that one.

Hey, thanks for the clear insight Siva. There is too much fanboyism of google these days clouding peoples perceptions. I hope your restraint applies to other EFF viewpoints, I think they often overstep the bounds of what needs to be protected. Keep the copyfight strong!

Derek:

I posted more at:

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/001849.html

Thanks!

Siva

I was also puzzled after reading Siva’s post. The case law doesn’t stress the non-commercial fair use factor nearly as much as his post implies; I don’t understand why he thinks there’s such a significant distinction between Google doing this and a library providing the same service. I also don’t understand his ethical position.

If Google were going to libraries and making physical photocopies of every book in the place rather than digital scans, I think the arguments against Google Print would be a little more obvious. Even if they immediately took the photocopies and buried them in an abandoned salt mine, those copies would still be unauthorized by the copyright holder. I’m not aware of any interpretation of “fair use” that would allow copying on this scale even if they owned legal copies of the originals, which in this case they clearly don’t. Add the fact that they’ll be creating works (indexes and excerpts) derived directly from these copies and offering these works to others for commercial gain and I don’t see how anyone can seriously argue against the idea that the entire enterprise violates well-established copyright law on a grand scale.

Whether this *should* be illegal is certainly worth discussing. But I don’t see much wiggle room around whether or not it *is* illegal. If you need the copyright holders’ permission to sample a single drum loop, you sure as hell need it to “sample” an entire library!