Google agreement with publishers prompts a partial Harvard pullout

Harvard University has announced it is partially withdrawing from a book-scanning partnership with Google, the New York Public Library and other universities after Google settled lawsuits brought against it by major publishers over the scanning and indexing of in-copyright books.

Harvard University spokesman John Longbrake told the Standard that "We have informed Google that we would not be participating at this point, and rather evaluating the settlement as it evolves." An official statement from the university added that "If [the settlement] evolves in a way that makes collections digitized from libraries widely accessible and usable under reasonable terms, we would willingly participate."

On Tuesday, Google said it would pay $125 million plus legal fees to end the suits, which were brought by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. Google also promised to establish a "Book Rights Registry" that will let authors and publishers register their books and get a cut of online sales and advertising revenue. The agreement still needs to be approved by a New York district court.

According to the Harvard statement, the university is concerned about the following issues relating to copyrighted works:

• How public access and subscription services would work
• The cost of access
• What materials would be included
• Whether the ways in which digitized volumes are captured and shared would "reduce their utility for research and education."

In a letter to Harvard library staff that was partially excerpted in an article by the Harvard Crimson, University Library Director Robert Darnton stated there was an additional concern that certain books would be missing photographs and illustrations.

However, Longbrake stressed that Harvard would continue to work with Google on the ongoing project to scan out-of-copyright library books. That project aims to produce digital copies of books that have entered the public domain and make them available to students, faculty, researchers, and members of the public through the Internet. The project would also direct users who want to borrow or buy physical copies of the books to libraries or booksellers, and eventually let them download and print PDF copies of the books. Harvard says the project could include more than one million out-of-copyright books.

Image: Harvard's Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library (Ian Lamont)

Sources used for this story: John Longbrake of the Harvard News Office, a statement from the HNO, the Harvard Libaries website, the Harvard Crimson, the IDG News Service, the Associated Press.