AAP Question Google’s Library Plan

-- Library Journal, 6/28/2005

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is now raising concerns about Google Print for Libraries similar to those voiced by American Association of University Presses (AAUP) executive director Peter Givler in May. Perhaps the biggest question: what are Google’s future plans and how they will affect the long-term business of publishers? “When Google Print was first announced,” AAP VP for legal and governmental affairs Allan Adler said, “it was understood to be a way to expand the body of content available for searches that would generate revenue for Google from advertising.” For publishers wooed to participate, the program was said to spur book sales and other revenue. “It seems [Google] is now making a distinction, that if they obtain these works from libraries they somehow don’t need permission to engage in the exact same uses that were the subject of the agreements they were pursuing with publishers,” Adler mused. “Let’s not forget,” he cautions, “Google is a for-profit entity that is doing [Google Print for Libraries] in support of their primary revenue stream.”