Harvard University is dropping out of Google’s massive book-scanning project involving copyrighted books, citing concerns about reader access.
The university was among Google’s early partners for the project, but expressed reservations about the $125-million settlement reached last week between Google and authors and publishers, setting up a framework for splitting the profits from digitally copied books between the Internet titan and the original writers and publishers.
Harvard was not a party to the suits brought by the Authors Guild and five different publishers, which led to that settlement.
“As we understand it, the settlement contains too many potential limitations on access to, and use of the books by members of the higher-education community and by patrons of public libraries,” wrote University Library Director Robert C. Darnton in a letter to staff.
Darnton also said he was skeptical of the subscription pricing model laid out in the settlement.
Harvard had been one of five academic libraries – along with Stanford, Oxford, Michigan, and the New York Public Library – who had agreed to partner with Google when the book scanning initiative was announced in October 2004.
Harvard’s decision to bar copyrighted material from the project could have broader repercussions since Harvard maintains the largest academic library in the world, and its director, Darnton, also serves as a trustee of the New York Public Library.
However, it does not affect an earlier agreement allowing Google to scan books with expired copyrights. Of the approximately seven million books Google has scanned since 2004, four to five million are out of print and not covered by copyright laws. Among those copied from Harvard’s collection are books by Henry James, Edith Wharton, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Margaret Fuller.
Under the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, Google would publish up to 20-percent of a book’s text online at no charge to readers. The entire book would be available for a fee. Universities, libraries and other organizations would be able to buy subscriptions to make entire collections available to their users online.
Google plans to take 37 percent of the revenue, leaving 63 percent for publishers and authors. If Google sells ads on pages where previews of scanned books appear, it will split the revenue on the same basis.
Harvard officials said the university would reconsider its participation if the deal were restructured with more “reasonable terms.”
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