Google Books Legal Issues

Perhaps a model for a Google Books licensing deal could be provided by the music industry?

Radio or television stations that play music obtain the rights to do so by paying groups representing the composers (although many musicians have thought they should have cut of the royalties, also).  This arrangement has been imperfect, but it has lasted for a long time.  The artists benefit because at least some of them get royalties, and because their work gets more recognized and consumed when it is broadcast, so more people will buy their music or go to their shows.  Authors or their heirs could also benefit from a similar arrangement for books.  The nature of digital record keeping allows for more exact royalty payments than were possible in the days when radio stations played music off records or CD's, and kept track of airplay on paper, during audit periods.

In extremely broad strokes, I think there needs to be a deal allowing Google Books, and any other company, to pay a standardized fee to authors/publishers/rights holders, for permission to put digital books online.  Much of the disagreement seems to be a matter of money, not philosophy:  The libraries are afraid Google will gouge them.

Digital represents a faster, more easily searchable way of publishing.  Many of the differences between printed reading and digital reading is the result of technology which is still in flux.  Reading online can be scattershot because of hypertext.  Reading on a screen can be difficult on the eyes because the resolution is low, and the screen is backlit, and the design is often poor.  The differences we have discussed in class between digital reading and book reading seem relatively minor:  Discovering a book on a shelf, as opposed to finding it in an online search involves only a small part of the experience.  Searching a book using a text search box does not seem much different from using the index, since both direct your attention to certain specific parts of the book.  Kindle-type devices might eventually provide the same resolution and readability as the printed page, hopefully without the multimedia and hypertext distractions.  This could virtually erase the difference between print and electronic reading.