[A2k] Jamie Boyle: We Must Stop Google Books Because It Will Work!!!

[Claude Almansi]

Sorry: it's late and some typos really messed up what I meant. So
here's a corrected version:

Brilliant bit of satire, Manon - but as a report, err, a bit unfair.
Sure there were some mind-boggling statements at the Sept. 7 hearing,
as for instance Nicolas Georges' for the French Ministry of Culture.
But there were also constructive criticisms, even from the French
side: e.g.  Bernard Lang's contribution based on the research that has
been done by the copyright experts' group of the European Digital
Libraries on orphan works. Another important point raised by Lang was
the need for more accurate identifiers in the registry.

Sylvia van Peteghem, of Ghent University Library, which is taking part
in the Google scan, said that if only Google had already scanned the
books when they had a flood there, they would still have them. She
also said that in non US libraries, Google was only scanning works up
to 1869 (she explained to me that this was to steer clear of copyright
issues in case someone wrote a book when s/he was 12 then went on to
live to 110). Someone pointed out the advantages for preservation of
Google using open standard software. Etc.

And objections to the Settlement in the name of readers' rights were
also presented, in particular by Peter Brantley of the Internet
Archive. Julia Wright, daughter of Richard Wright, expressed her [and
other authors'] hurt at the way the Authors' Guild did the class
action and negotiated the Settlement without bothering to consult its
members.

And Dan Clancy (Google), in one of the last Q and A of the day,
precisely broached the issue of copyright regimes in Europe:

"But what I would really call on everyone here is to think of trying
collectively to create a world where 10 years from now, this content
is digitally accessible and (...) that this will spur a discussion
towards a European solution".

By then, though, the representative of the French Ministry of Culture
had already left the room...

So on the whole, the hearing was far less a primitive cocorico
anti-Google / anti-US affair than some prior French and German
statements might have let fear, or than the blog post by James Boyle
you sent makes seem.


Best

Claude

PS Interesting other Q and A: "What will happen to the database if
Google goes out of business?"  Dan Clancy's answer for Google: "...
Under the agreement, (...) if Google ever stops making a number of
required services available for even up to 15% (...), so we have to do
at least 85% of the contract, then our library partners have  the
ability to turn on a provision that will require us to give them all
the scans, and that they could then find an alternative provider to
make these services available".