A Copyfighter\’s Musings

Following up on my post, Patrick Ross decided
to see for himself how Google Prints works and ended up in need of
clarification. After doing a search for the word “copyright,” he was
able to see full pages from several books.  Patrick wonders,
“Perhaps the author gave Google permission to show full pages.”

Yes, indeed the copyright holder did.  Those books are part of the Google Print Publisher Program.  Copyright holders can give Google explicit permission to show entire pages from the books.  Google then gets to show ads on the pages and shares the revenue with the copyright holders.   (In addition, Google will show the entirety of public domain books since they do not need permission to do so.)

From all other books, Google only shows small snippets and bibliographic information with no ads, unless the copyright holder has specifically opted out, in which case Google will not scan or show the book at all.

Now I’m no investigative reporter, but have I found yet more middle ground?

Filed by Derek Slater at 11:57 pm under General news