[IP] more on "Google Print" and Ethics
Begin forwarded message:
From: NC Hanger / Windhaven <nhanger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 16, 2005 3:43:04 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: tim@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on "Google Print" and Ethics
Tim,
I hate to point this out, really. Maybe you're not aware of it, but
-- for instance -- my book from 2003, The First Year: Lupus, is up at
Google Print with FULL PAGES showing. Not snippets. I don't know what
pages you see at Google Print, but I see full book pages.
The pages show 5 at a time, in blocks (forwards, backwards) when you
search on =any text= from the book at all. I tried this by searching
on text randomly selected from the print edition. From page 53, I got
the following hit at Google Print:
http://tinyurl.com/conf8
Note the search words I used at print.google.com in the full URL of
the hit.
From page 103:
http://tinyurl.com/dqbt3
Page 103's searchable text (see URL above for key words I used) is
even better: it's a lengthy quote from another book -- one which I &
my publisher had permission to use in the print edition for The First
Year: Lupus, but which I highly doubt Google had permission to copy
as well. Permissions within permissions -- gets interesting. That'll
be for the lawyers to argue out.
I'm in publishing too, Tim. I've been a managing editor or production
manager or plain old editor at mainstream publishers since 1983. I
have rarely disagreed with anything you have to say on the subject of
copyright or publishing, but here I think we differ quite a bit. As
you can see from my .sig below, I'm nowadays the production manager
for Jim Baen -- Baen Books. As you know, Baen's pretty unusual as far
as rights and electronic use of books goes, but I suspect even they
would wonder at why a company like Google would assume a publisher
(or copyright holder) would want them to create & store electronic
copies of their books without permission (opting in, not opting out
-- which is questionably useful as a stopgap, legalities aside).
Especially a company like Baen which already makes very good use of
its electronic versions of its books and brings income from such
directly to both itself as a publisher and the authors themselves.
Why let Google make the money when the publisher already is? But
perhaps because Baen is an exception to the rule, it doesn't figure
highly in your discussion to hand.
The searchable version of my book, even 5 pages at a time, scares the
crap out of me. The first thing I thought when I saw it was: Only a
short time before someone figures out how to grab the whole thing,
rather than 5 pages at a time, and just print the sucker out.
I'm already at 2nd printing, thank you, without Google's help via
Google Print. I don't think making it searchable in this manner is
going to bring me more buyers. What will bring more buyers is the
need for a legitimately printed book available in the bookstores, not
printed in someone's basement and sold on eBay for $2 plus shipping.
Granted, my book isn't likely to be pirated. It's too damned boring.
I'd like to make it to 3rd printing. And I bet I will, even without
Google Print. Royalties are a Good Thing.
We seem to have very different experience in the success rate of
books, by the way. But again, perhaps Baen's sell-through rate is an
exception to the rule and not applicable here. But then, the sell-
through rate of my boring book was an exception too, I guess.
Publishing is an odd world and exceptions do crop up in groupings
sometimes.
Best,
--Nancy
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Nancy C. Hanger, production manager
Baen Books (dist. by Simon & Schuster)
nhanger@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
603-483-0929 (prod. office) | 603-483-8022 (fax)
* www.baen.com *
On Aug 12, 2005, at 8:04 PM, David Farber wrote:
If Google were offering the full Google Print style service, where
they were actually showing full pages from the copyrighted work,
I'd completely agree with you. But they are scanning the books in
order to provide search, and showing only snippets that would
indeed be completely fair use if the catalog were created
manually. It's less than is quoted in any book review.
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