Silicon Insider: Google's Library Dilemma
Oct. 20, 2005 — -- If you were a writer, would you rather be read than paid?
That's a loaded question, and probably exactly the wrong one to ask; nevertheless, it lies at the heart of the whole Google Print debate.
This is one of those technology subjects where I not only must admit to a conflict of interest, but almost an unequaled one. I'm so down and dirty on this one that I can hardly see the clear, blue sky. But, interestingly, this very conflict is so neatly balanced on both sides of the argument that I find myself uncharacteristically ambivalent on the case.
Here's the story: Earlier this year, Google finally made public its Library Project, a program already under way to digitize the millions of books in some of the world's greatest libraries -- including those at Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, the New York Public Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. This Library Project, the company announced, was to be the cornerstone of an even bigger Google service that we now know as Google Print. Completing the package is the Publisher Program, which enables newly-published (and thus copyrighted) works to be added to this database, upon permission of the publisher or author.
In keeping with its wildly successful search policy, Google promised not to make any money off referrals from booksellers, not to display ads on pages referencing its Library Project books, and to only display ads on Publishing Program book pages with the permission of the copyright holder (who would receive the majority of that revenue).
This all sounded pretty good on first glance. After all, aside from other search engine companies, who would be smacking themselves in the head for not thinking of this first? Who could possibly complain about having every book in the world not only online, but instantly searchable? Imagine the boon to academic and student researchers, to historians, to schoolchildren and the self-educated in the poorest parts of the world. Imagine the billions of people in the world who are currently lucky to get their hands on any textbook, now suddenly able to tap into millions of texts -- all with a click of a few keys down at the local Internet café or even on their cell phones.
Imagine what a boost that would be for human invention! Suddenly allowing a billion imaginations to blossom: What Einsteins or Bacons or Mozarts or Giottos are out there waiting only for their chance to change the world? At a time when the challenges facing humanity seem to be growing exponentially in both number and magnitude, doubling or tripling our available intellectual capital seems like a darn good idea.
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