Here’s a really interesting essay by Robert Darnton from the New York Review of Books which discusses the implications and the historical context of the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing the company for alleged breach of copyright in its project to digitize the book collections of the major academic libraries.
Four years ago, Google began digitizing books from research libraries, providing full-text searching and making books in the public domain available on the Internet at no cost to the viewer. Google also digitized an ever-increasing number of library books that were protected by copyright in order to provide search services that displayed small snippets of the text. In September and October 2005, a group of authors and publishers brought a class action suit against Google, alleging violation of copyright. Last October 28, after lengthy negotiations, the opposing parties announced agreement on a settlement, which is subject to approval by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York
The essay places this development in the context of the Enlightenment’s ‘Republic of Letters’: ‘a realm with no police, no boundaries, and no inequalities other than those determined by talent. Anyone could join it by exercising the two main attributes of citizenship, writing and reading. Writers formulated ideas, and readers judged them. Thanks to the power of the printed word, the judgments spread in widening circles, and the strongest arguments won.’
Darnton emphasises the staggering reach of Google’s project that will ‘result in the world’s largest library. It would, to be sure, be a digital library, but it could dwarf the Library of Congress and all the national libraries of Europe. Moreover, in pursuing the terms of the settlement with the authors and publishers, Google could also become the world’s largest book business—not a chain of stores but an electronic supply service that could out-Amazon Amazon.’
How should we view this: with Enlightenment enthusiasm or fear of the danger of concentrating power to control access to information?
He concludes that this is ‘a tipping point in the development of what we call the information society. If we get the balance wrong at this moment, private interests may outweigh the public good for the foreseeable future, and the Enlightenment dream may be as elusive as ever.’
Links
- Google Book Search: website
- Google Book Search: Wikipedia
- Magazine search added to Google Book Search
