The Authors Guild Files Brief in Google Books Appeal & Proposes That Congress Establish a National Digital Library

From the Associated Press:

“Saying Google Inc. is stealing business from online book retailers, the Authors Guild asked a federal appeals court Friday to reinstate its lawsuit contending that the Internet giant is violating copyright laws with its massive book digitization project.”

From the Authors Guild News Release:

“Without the permissions that Amazon had painstakingly acquired for its Search Inside the Book program, Google digitized authors’ works in order to lure book buyers away from online booksellers to its turf, seeking to bring countless eyeballs to its ads. Google is yanking readers out of online bookstores.”–Roxana Robinson, Authors Guild President
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The Authors Guild proposes that Congress establish a collective management organization, similar to ASCAP, to license digital rights to out-of-print books. Authors, publishers and other rights holders would be paid for the use of their works, and they would have the right to exclude their books from any or all uses. The collective management organization’s authority would be strictly limited, however. It would not license e-book or print book rights (only the author or other rights holder could do that), and it wouldn’t collect its administrative fee until it paid the rights holder.
The National Digital Library would display full book pages, not mere “snippets.” It would be the equivalent of a great research library that anyone can view from their dorm room or through access to a high school, public library or other subscribing institution. It would be a level-the-playing-field leap for small colleges, remote libraries and communities everywhere. It would help level other playing fields, as well. The National Digital Library’s digitized text and digital page images would be fully accessible to the visually impaired.

Authors Guild Brief in AG v Google Appeal by LJ’s infoDOCKET

UPDATE

• Coverage and Related Links From Jurist
• Coverage From Publishers Weekly

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Interactive Tools, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Public Libraries