Google Print and Fair Use

WSJ
Authors' Second Chance

Google's Ambitious Plan to Put Books Online
Offers Authors, Publishers New Lease on Life
October 10, 2005

It's become one of the tech world's most-popular parlor games: digging up examples of how Google, whose founders' letter identified "Don't be evil" as a core value, is busy being evil. One of the more-recent pieces of evidence offered is the Google Print project, a plan that's breathtaking in its ambition -- and, some say, in its total disregard for copyright laws.

Google Print's goal is simple and startling: scan every book ever written and make the contents searchable. The project has two parts: the Print Publisher Program and the Print Library Program. In the former, publishers authorize Google to scan their books into its database; a search that turns up something from a publisher's book displays the relevant page with the search term highlighted, from which a computer user can go a few pages forward and back. Users also get other relevant information -- the copyright, table of contents, index and links to booksellers selling that book. Google shows relevant ads next to the pages if a publisher has given it permission to do so, with the publisher getting a share of ad revenue.. . . [more including a fair use analysis]