The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 41, September 25, 2005, Article 17

GOOGLE LIBRARY PROJECT SUED BY AUTHORS

In earlier E-Sylum issues we discussed Google's grand plan
to digitize and index the contents of the world's leading libraries.
On September 21st Reuters reported that a group of U.S. writers
are suing the company, alleging that the plan infringes individual
author copyrights.

"The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York against Google and its Google
Print project, names as co-plaintiffs The Authors Guild and
writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman.

Hoffman was Poet Laureate of the United States in 1973-74.
Mitgang is a historian, critic and former New York Times editorial
writer. Miles is a children's book author.

The lawsuit seeks class action status, asks for damages and
demands an injunction to halt further infringements."

"Google Print (http://print.google.com/) has exploded into the top
ranks of U.S. Internet sites, rising to the 30th most visited site
for the week ending September 17 from 90th a week earlier,
according to data from Internet traffic researcher Hitwise Inc.
Global data was not immediately available."

"Google Print directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing
awareness of and sales of the books in the program," Google said
in a statement. "Only small portions of the books are shown unless
the content owner gives permission to show more."

A year ago Google began working with five of the world's libraries
-- at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan and
the New York Public Library -- to make large parts of their book
collections searchable on the Web.

The action by the 86-year-old Authors Guild is part of a push by
the organization to roll back efforts by Web sites to make the contents
of books freely available online."

To read the full Reuters story: Full Story

Going to print.google.com and entering the search term
"numismatics" leads to 186 books with 30,100 pages relating to
"numismatics". At random I choose "Early Hellenistic Coinage
from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamea" by
Otto Morkholm, a publication of Cambridge University Press.
I was able to see only p209 of the book, plus the table of
contents and index. All the pages are marked "Copyrighted
Material". According to the "Why can't I read the entire book?"
link, "We respect copyright law and the tremendous creative
effort authors put into their work. So you'll only be able to see
a limited portion – in some cases only a few sentences – of books
that we treat as under copyright. If the book is not under copyright,
then you can browse the entire book. In general, Google Print
aims to help you discover books, not read them from start to finish.
It's like going to a bookstore and browsing – only with a Google
twist."

The pages have links enabling the viewer to purchase the book
from the publisher, Cambridge University Press, Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, Booksense and Froogle.

Another search for "colonial coinage" led to a passage in the book
"A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America" by Ivor Noel Hume
(University of Pennsylvania Press) about halfpennies and farthings
of George II and George III.

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

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