Google Books

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

Has anyone been following the Google book initiative very closely? I've been catching pieces of it & am really on the fence. In one way, it's great that so many books are now available to me, but I'm worried about the authors. Their definition of an 'orphaned' book is pretty broad, I've heard. That means less money to authors & less incentive for people to write.

Anyway, whether you like it or not, there are a lot of cool books available. I just read today that Life magazine is now online.

http://books.google.com/books?id=R1cE...

I find that pretty exciting. It looks like it goes from 1935 through 1972. Check it out.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

One of the cool things about Google books - at least I think it is cool - is that you can preview even copyrighted books.

Go to http://books.google.com
Type an author's name into the search box & you'll get a list of all their books.

You can then click on a book. You'll get an overview which includes ratings, reviews, a preview & Wiki links. There are also links to where you can buy it with prices.

I found that "Jack of Shadows" doesn't have a preview, nor does "The Hand of Oberon", our current month reads.

"Lord of Light" has a preview that is almost 50 pages long, but every 5 - 10 pages (it seems to vary each time you get the book) a couple of pages are missing. Still, you get a good idea of the style & story. Enough to decide if the book is of interest or not.

Werner Lind's book, Lifeblood comes up, but without a preview. Many of Janny Wurts' books come up & some have previews. Fugitive Prince had a large preview. While occasional pages were skipped, the book went up to page 645 of its 720 pages. That's a huge part of the book, but I sure wouldn't want to read it there. The missing parts would frustrate me to death.

[Greyweather]

The main problem I have with Google books is that it places the burden on the author to explicitly remove their property from Google books, rather than Google securing permission from the copyright holder before they use it. If I did something like that I would be arrested.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

Greyweather, could you explain that a bit more, please? Are you saying they're putting copyrighted works up not in preview mode?

I'd believe it because I haven't heard good things about their definition of 'orphaned' works. I also heard they made a one time payment to authors through another agency & it's a pittance. I'm not really sure what that is about, though.

I read one article on it that said Google now has enough of a jump on this that even Microsoft would be hard put to catch up to them in this area, effectively granting them a monopoly on this sort of online book initiative. Couple that with their search capabilities & it's very easy to start spinning conspiracy theories.

On the positive side, many hard to find & rare books are now available to a lot more people. This could be a real boon to researchers.

[Greyweather]

Jim wrote: "Greyweather, could you explain that a bit more, please? Are you saying they're putting copyrighted works up not in preview mode?"

What I am saying is that even preview mode represents copyright infringement, which is why Google got sued by the Association of American Publishers in the first place. "Fair use" and "reproduction by libraries and archives" do not apply to "use of a commercial nature" or "any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage." Google Books is both.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

Google certainly is a commercial enterprise. How are they making money off of this right now? Is it just through searches with advertiser ads still or is there another way? Do they get a bite every time someone clicks on a book that they direct someone to buy?

The amount of text they preview seems to be a lot, especially if they are making money off of it. I've never been really sure how much of a work any one can fairly use.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

Ursula K. Le Guin has resigned from the Author's Guild over their support of the Google Book Settlement. Her letter is short & scathing.
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Note-AGR...

Here's a link to the Author's Guild page on the settlement:
http://www.authorsguild.org/advocacy/...

I haven't read through any of their documents explaining why they supported Google Books. If anyone else can read legalese & does so, it would be great to get a summation.

[Cindy]

I don't speak 'legal' but I'm willing to bet the root cause is money... with the justification of 'wider exposure' for the authors. I can certainly see Ms Le Guin's point - if you want to use an author's 'stuff' and make it available to the public you're supposed to PREARRANGE it [via purchase or at least contact with the owner of the copyright:] - that's what copyright is all about.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

I'm sure you're right about the root cause, Cindy. Unfortunately, the book market is in a lot of trouble right now on several fronts & I don't think Google is helping matters.

Authors are getting squeezed badly. Their percentage of a sale is tiny or even nonexistent when it should be larger, such as for ebooks.
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/12/the-uks-s...

There are only a few publishers, several big ones having bought out most of the others, so it has become a numbers game for the past few years. If a book hasn't sold a lot over the past few, it's on the chopping block, no matter how steadily it has sold for decades. Sales numbers aren't always a great indicator of popularity or worth of a book, depending on how they're compiled & a host of other factors such as marketing, release times & such.

Some of the other fallout from the publisher consolidation means an author can't keep the same editor to work with on a series & often gets harmed through corporate neglect & ignorance. Other pressures on the author mean that many are writing for commercial success & we suffer for that. For instance, the Dresden Files or Sookie Stackhouse series are OK books, but they're candy books, not real literature. Their TV pap in paperback form.

Self publishing of ebooks is rampant, but with tens of thousands of choices, finding the gem amidst the dross is very tough. Most of these books shouldn't be published & most of the rest need a decent editor very badly. Unfortunately, they take attention away from well written books, burying them by sheer numbers. Many decent aspiring authors get shut out or down by the sheer volume of the competition. Many of the best artists have been horrible at business & marketing, both are very necessary skills for a writer today.

Put Google's work on top of all that & it all adds up to a pretty hostile environment for the author, the goose that lays the golden eggs.

[Greyweather]

Roy Blount Jr. wrote: "There’ll be at least $45 million for authors and publishers whose in-copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission. If your book was scanned and you own all the rights, you’ll get a small share of this, at least $60, depending on how many rightsholders file claims."

Note that the normal minimum award for each instance of copyright infringement is $200, and only if it is demonstrated "that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright." Otherwise the minimum is $750. Sixty bucks is a bad joke.

[Greyweather]

Jim wrote: "If anyone else can read legalese & does so, it would be great to get a summation."

In exchange for $125 million and undisclosed future royalties, Google gets to re-write US copyright law.

[Jim, Keeper of the Pattern]

Oh! That's ugly.