AAUP: Google Needs to Move More
by Andrew Albanese, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 8/23/2005
The Association of American University Publishers, whose leaked letter to Google brought publishers' concerns about Google Print for Libraries to the fore, has been talking with the company about ways to resolve their differences, although a new statement from the association's board indicates there is still a way to go before any agreement is reached.
In evaluating Google's August 12 policy shift on Print for Libraries, AAUP officials said Google's change resolved little. "By temporarily suspending the digitization of copyrighted work Google's revised policy makes an important concession to the rights of copyright holders," the statement reads. "In its essentials, though, the revised policy is virtually the same as the previous one." On August 12, Google announced that publishers could now opt out of having their books digitized from library shelves by supplying Google with a list of titles to be withdrawn.
Most troubling to the AAUP is that despite Google's action, it still "claims a sweeping right to appropriate the property of others for its own commercial use unless it is told, case by case and instance by instance, not to."
Still, AAUP says it finds the library project worthwhile and called on Google to come to the table with stakeholders to find common ground. "The idea of the Library Project is enormously appealing," the board noted. "It is the way it is being put into practice that is causing such widespread concern.” AAUP called on "all the parties involved," to use the time between now and November 1 to find an agreeable way forward.|
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