Google's Scan Plan Debated at NYPL, as New "Book Search" Name Emerges

-- Library Journal, 11/21/2005

In a tantalizing potential courtroom preview, representatives from the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) faced off November 17 against Google over the company's plan to scan copyrighted books from libraries. The program, "Battle of the Books," was held at the New York Public Library, a participant in Google's scan plan. Allan Adler of the Association of American Publishers and Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig engaged in some contentious but civil arguments, and were applauded frequently by a large, involved audience. At one point, Adler accused Lessig of being "a one-trick pony" in asserting his fair use arguments. Later, however, the same charge stuck to Adler and Authors Guild president Nick Taylor, whose argument seemed to rest on the fact that Google's copying of books without explicit permission for indexing purposes was infringement.

Lessig argued that copyright laws are not so narrowly written, and that the courts are mandated to factor in things like public benefit and harm to the market in order to balance interests between copyright owners and the public. Google VP David Drummond, who offered little insight into Google's reasoning, assured the audience that Google respects copyright and had no intention of making the books it scans freely available. "Information does not want to free," Drummond said, "It does want to be found."

Meanwhile, Google threw another curve yesterday, abruptly changing the name of its program from Google Print to Google Book Search, so that Google Print for Libraries is now the Library Project subcategory of Google Book Search. The news was delivered yesterday on Google's Blog, which said the new name would clarify the program for users who might think they could print book content they found. "We don't think that this new name will change what some folks think about this program," Google marketing manager Jen Grant wrote. "But we do believe it will help a lot of people understand better what we're doing."