This in today's NYTimes, about the Google plan to digitize whole libraries:
Writers Sue Google, Accusing It of Copyright Violation
By EDWARD WYATT Published: September 21, 2005
Three authors filed suit against Google yesterday contending that the company's program to create searchable digital copies of the contents of several university libraries constituted "massive copyright infringement."
The University of Michigan has agreed to let Google create a searchable database of its library collection. Related Class Action Complaint (The Authors Guild v. Google) Readers Forum: Technology and the Internet
The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, is the first to arise from the Google Print Library program, the fledgling effort aimed at a searchable library of all the world's printed books.
Google intends to make money from the project by selling advertising on its search pages, much as it does on its popular online search-engine site.
The plaintiffs, who are seeking class-action status, also include the Authors Guild, a trade group that says it represents more than 8,000 published authors. Listed as plaintiffs in the suit are Daniel Hoffman, a former consultant in residence at the Library of Congress and the author of many volumes of poetry, translation and literary criticism; Betty Miles, an author of children's and young adult fiction; and Herbert Mitgang, the author of a biography of Abraham Lincoln as well as novels and plays. Mr. Mitgang is a former cultural correspondent and editorial writer for The New York Times.
Each of the plaintiffs claim copyright to at least one literary work that is in the library of the University of Michigan, according to the suit. Michigan is one of three universities, along with Harvard and Stanford, that agreed last year to let Google create searchable databases of their entire collections. The New York Public Library and Oxford University also entered into agreements with Google, but only for the works in their collections that are no longer covered by copyright.
Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, said the organization did not know whether Google had yet copied any of the works by the plaintiffs. But he noted that they were seeking an injunction against copying and a declaration that the program violates copyright law, as well as damages from any violations so far.
The suit contends that Google knew or should have known that the Copyright Act "required it to obtain authorization from the holders of the copyrights in these literary works before creating and reproducing digital copies of the works for its commercial use and for the use of others."
Google has said from the beginning that its program is covered by the "fair use" provision of the copyright law, which allows limited use of protected works. In a statement issued in response to the suit, Google also said its program respected copyrights.
"We regret that this group has chosen litigation to try to stop a program that will make books and the information within them more discoverable to the world," the statement said. "Google Print directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the program. And, if they choose, authors and publishers can exclude books from the program if they don't want their material included. Copyrighted books are indexed to create an electronic card catalog and only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more."
Google temporarily suspended its library project last month to give authors and other copyright holders until November to opt out by telling it that they did not want certain works to be copied.
But Mr. Aiken said that offer turned longstanding precedents in copyright law upside down, requiring owners to pre-emptively protect rights rather than requiring a user to gain approval for use of a copyrighted work.
Some aspects of the Google Print program have encountered relatively little opposition, particularly one that invites publishers to submit their books to Google for scanning and inclusion in the Google search engine. Most of the large commercial publishing houses have submitted books to Google for scanning, in the hope that the program will lead users to find and buy their books more easily.