Google criticised over copyright of Google Books
Link: Google criticised over copyright of Google Books
According to Google Blogoscoped, Google is seeking to enforce restrictions on use of copyright-free books from the Google Books project.
The Google Books project has seen a lot of criticism raised at it, especially when the project attempted to make digital copies of copyrighted material - without the permission of the copyright holders.
Now the allegation is that Google are trying to impose copyright restrictions on copyright-free books they produce - suggesting that Google really doesn’t have a clue about copyright issues.
The claim states that Google are seeking to publish the following restrictions in their guidelines for PDF’s created for the Google Books project:
[Do not] Make non-commercial use of the files … we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes. …
Maintain attribution … Please do not remove [the Google “watermark”].
The statement, if upheld, makes it clear that Google are claiming rights over works they should otherwise have no claim to. Additionally, it would be difficult to justify Google’s enforcement of such terms if there is no actual legal founding for making them.
Overall, the whole Google Book project area is one where Google has shown a great deal of confusion over copyright issues - and it looks as though they could be miring themselves further with their guidelines.
Links to copyright and electronic rights for publishing:
Publishing Law Center - electronic rights
Digital Rights at SFWA
