Book Search Praised From Lions Den

Google's Book Search project got major kudos from University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman speaking from within "Coleman called Google's project "legal, ethical, and noble." The UM President, whose school's library was picked as one of several libraries to participate in book scanning, was invited to speak by the AAP. Coleman said Google criticism and lawsuits from the Authors Guild and the AAP over intellectual property and copyrights. Google has stated it will make available full copies of only books in the Public Domain, or books published prior to 1922 in the US and non-copyrighted books like ones supplied by the government. Books still in copyright will be scanned from the libraries of the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library. Only Fair Use precedents to defend the scanning. Publishers have expressed concerns that digitizing the books, or making copies of them for display, is fundamental copyright violation; that Google did not attempt to seek author and publisher permission before proceeding; and that Google stands to make money from the project without passing royalties to authors and publishers. Some have called for Congressional no plans to advertise alongside provided snippets of material. Coleman began and ended her speech referencing the 3rd President of the United States Thomas Jefferson and his love for books. "Thomas Jefferson would have loved Google Book Search. He believed in contemplating every possible idea. He advocated the diffusion of knowledge, and the power of universities to make that happen." The main idea of her defense centered on the benefits of preservation, open access, public education, technology, and the rights of book owners. "It means stepping up, looking forward, and saying: Let's do it.'" document.write("Email the author here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") Yahoo My Web