“Google Print Library Project” – Unfair Use of Copyright

Abstract

The Print project has attracted widespread attention and generated heated debate and active litigation. In its currently proposed form, it is a plan to digitize books and to incorporate the books into a Google search system. There are numerous issues in completing this scheme. But for lawyers, authors and publishers, the most important fact is that a major aspect of the plan would turn copyright law on its head in a dangerous way. Because of that, the project should not survive legal challenge, even if it surmounts the technological and financial barriers that it faces. Although the corporate name suggests a small entity, Google is a billion dollar corporation flush with funds and market power. The Google plan is that it will make digital copies of millions of books, alter the copies to make them suitable for the Google system, and then use the digital copies (or the ability to search them) as a new feature of Google's commercial enterprise. One part of this plan involves an offer to license works from copyright owners for this purpose. In the other part (described as the library project), however, Google intends to make and modify copies without consent from the copyright owners. This paper focuses on this latter aspect of the project.