An article from the Express Search March 2010 Newsletter.

The inundation of downloadable reading materials via new electronic search engines or “tethered” reading devices has created multiple challenges for both copyright holders and rights of device users. Large providers such as Google and Amazon have both faced suits with the promise of more time in court or in negotiation before standards are set.

In the case of Google’s Book Search scanning project, issues have arisen both in and out of court with The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and other publishing entities representing copyright holders. The $125 million settlement included such concessions as purchasing options, author/publisher access control, and a Google-funded “Book Rights Registry” for fee and other book management (1).

The greatest benefit, according to many authors and readers, is access to out-of-print books, citing the success of increased revenue through the semi-controlled experiment of ‘Baen’s Free Library/Webscriptions’ (2). “The transition to digital opens great opportunities for scholarship…Once we sort out the mess, these valuable resources can be found [and] their author’s recognized” (3). The “author-friendly…free e-marketing” is being hailed by many authors frustrated with their current publishers (4).

The settlement has been more recently contested by both US and European interests, particularly competing corporations in electronic reading sales, such as Amazon, who claim Google is creating a anti-trust situation. Main arguments revolve around pre-scanning copyright consent, i.e. default inclusion particularly of in-copyright, out-of-print books. Opponents claim the settlement rules out the existence of liability (5).

Amazon has had its own troubles with its ‘Kindle’ technology, most notably with the question of ownership of digital book purchases. Amazon recently had to remote wipe several inadvertently incorrectly licensed digital books, giving rise to the debate over expectation of ownership of licensed data stored in an ‘owned’ file kept on a tethered device. “Connected appliances will tempt regulatory intervention” and questions are already arising as to whether or not censorship would be a natural outcropping of this circumstance (6).

(1) http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10601
(2) Posted by jjmcgaffey/10/28/08 - http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2008/10/google-authors/
(3) Posted by TJ/10/28/08 - http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2008/10/google-authors/
(4) Posted by Fred/10/28/08 - http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2008/10/google-authors/
(5) http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/09/18/opposition-to-aspects-of-google-book-project-settlement-mounts/ - Bruce Gain
(6) http://ip-watch.org/weblog/2009/09/29/regulators-role-seen-rising-as-e-content-tied-to-devices - Dugie Standeford