OpEd: Melinda Cervantes and Jane Light, San Jose Mercury News; Proposed Google book settlement leaves libraries' rights in question:
"The problem with the initial proposed settlement is a lack of specificity about how public libraries throughout the United States would be able to provide access to Google Book Search for millions of citizens. Would each library, regardless of its size and number of users, only be allowed to have one computer that could be used to access the Google Book Search?
What about access for the many library cardholders who use their home or work computers to "visit" the library's online resources? Would they be shut out?
Would the public be required to give up anonymity and privacy in order to explore Google's digitized library? Who would hold this information, and what assurance would library users have that the data would not be used for commercial purposes?
What would be the cost to libraries to access Google's Book Search — and should they have to pay anything at all, considering that much of Google's collection is material already in the public domain, and many of the books they are scanning come from publicly funded libraries?
These are troubling questions, and not just for librarians. They get to the heart and soul of what libraries are all about: equal access to information for everyone and a guarantee of privacy.
More people than ever are coming to their local libraries for resources. Some are budding inventors and entrepreneurs who are seeking inspiration for the next great innovation. Some are self-motivated independent learners who want to read, research and learn just for the fun of it. And, of course, many are students who rely as much on the public library as their school library for access to the world of information. The needs of the public are equally important as the intellectual property rights of authors.
So far, the Google settlement is being treated as if it were just another private litigation. It's not. Google's digitized library represents a huge worldwide public policy issue with complex, significant impacts that need further exploration."
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_13619997#
Showing posts with label privacy protections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privacy protections. Show all posts
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Op-Ed: Is Google playing by the book?; Christian Science Monitor, 8/7/09
Op-Ed: Christian Science Monitor; Is Google playing by the book?:
The search giant is on its way to becoming the world's digital library, but a private monopoly raises questions.:
"The idea of digitizing the world's written record and making it freely available to everyone is exhilarating. The ability of a student in Alabama or Albania to have access to the contents of the world's libraries online at their fingertips, for example, is a powerful concept and just one of the ways a free and open Web can lift humanity.
But history shows that when a company – even one with talent and good intentions – acts like a monopoly, it is subject to abuses. Despite the potentially monumental effects of this settlement, it has had little public scrutiny. Yet it needs a rigorous examination.
If it stands, the agreement must include long-term safeguards that allow public access to the full collection at reasonable cost, maintain the rights of copyright holders, and ensure the necessary privacy of those who use the service."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0807/p08s01-comv.html
The search giant is on its way to becoming the world's digital library, but a private monopoly raises questions.:
"The idea of digitizing the world's written record and making it freely available to everyone is exhilarating. The ability of a student in Alabama or Albania to have access to the contents of the world's libraries online at their fingertips, for example, is a powerful concept and just one of the ways a free and open Web can lift humanity.
But history shows that when a company – even one with talent and good intentions – acts like a monopoly, it is subject to abuses. Despite the potentially monumental effects of this settlement, it has had little public scrutiny. Yet it needs a rigorous examination.
If it stands, the agreement must include long-term safeguards that allow public access to the full collection at reasonable cost, maintain the rights of copyright holders, and ensure the necessary privacy of those who use the service."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0807/p08s01-comv.html
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Organizations Urge Google To Ensure Privacy Protection in Book Search; Library Journal, 7/28/09
Norman Oder via Library Journal; Organizations Urge Google To Ensure Privacy Protection in Book Search:
"(For a set of links, go to LibraryJournal.com/GoogleBookSearchSettlement.)
Public Index debuts
The Public Index, a web site aiming to study and discuss the Google Book Search Settlement, has finally debuted, the work of New York Law School (NYLS) professor James Grimmelmann and colleagues. The centerpiece of the site is an interactive version of the proposed settlement, which allows annotations...
Two defenses of Google
Meanwhile, in a blog post headlined The Earth is Not Flat: The Public Interest and the Google Book Search Settlement: A Reply to Grimmelman, David Balto, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress praises the settlement, writing, “What Google has achieved the in truly remarkable, and potentially transforms the availability of vast amounts of knowledge - much akin to the development of search"...
Similarly, in the San Jose Mercury-News, Jonathan Hillel, a policy fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, criticized the inquiries made by the Justice Department into antitrust implications...
The Google game
Meanwhile, Google has launched the 10 Days in Google Books game, inviting entrants to write a 50-word entry on the topic of books. Each day, the top three submissions will win Sony Readers, while the first 20,000 people to play the game will get Google Books laptop stickers."
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6673463.html
"(For a set of links, go to LibraryJournal.com/GoogleBookSearchSettlement.)
Public Index debuts
The Public Index, a web site aiming to study and discuss the Google Book Search Settlement, has finally debuted, the work of New York Law School (NYLS) professor James Grimmelmann and colleagues. The centerpiece of the site is an interactive version of the proposed settlement, which allows annotations...
Two defenses of Google
Meanwhile, in a blog post headlined The Earth is Not Flat: The Public Interest and the Google Book Search Settlement: A Reply to Grimmelman, David Balto, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress praises the settlement, writing, “What Google has achieved the in truly remarkable, and potentially transforms the availability of vast amounts of knowledge - much akin to the development of search"...
Similarly, in the San Jose Mercury-News, Jonathan Hillel, a policy fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, criticized the inquiries made by the Justice Department into antitrust implications...
The Google game
Meanwhile, Google has launched the 10 Days in Google Books game, inviting entrants to write a 50-word entry on the topic of books. Each day, the top three submissions will win Sony Readers, while the first 20,000 people to play the game will get Google Books laptop stickers."
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6673463.html
An Open Workshop at Harvard Law School: 7/31/09; Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement
An Open Workshop at Harvard Law School: 7/31/09; Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement: Sponsored by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, the Harvard Law School Library, and Professors Charles Nesson, John Palfrey and Phil Malone:
"Scope and Goals
The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called “orphan works” that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.
This workshop seeks to bring a fresh, unique perspective to a complex and widely debated topic. It will focus not on the specific merits and demerits of the settlement itself, or the particular antitrust and privacy and other objections that have been raised. Instead, it will examine the idea of possible alternative universes and offer specific proposals for scenarios that may arise whether or not the settlement is approved. What can libraries, or universities, or non-profits, or Congress, do in the current landscape? And how might these possibilities help us to define a better world than the one that we have today and, more importantly, than the one that will exist if the Google settlement is approved in its current form? Regardless of what happens with respect to the Settlement, what alternative possibilities could lead to a richer, more open and better information ecosystem than the one we have today or might have tomorrow with the Settlement?
By exploring these alternatives, this workshop seeks, in the end, to help inform the debate over the Settlement and its terms and to illuminate some of the key policy considerations that are at stake. Its ultimate goal is to develop a series of options and proposals that could improve on the status quo in novel ways.
Proposed Topics
Here are some tentative topics for beginning discussion at the workshop. We welcome feedback on these suggestions and encourage you to contribute your own proposals. We'll choose several of the topics to be incorporated into our agenda...
What might truly open access to orphan works look like
What might a truly “open” digital collection created by major libraries look like
What might a truly “open” global library look like
What would a truly “open” digital library look like
What might truly open access to and use of an online digital library look like
What might online, digital publishing and access look like going forward
Are all of these the same? Within the open environment what is closed?
Intellectual Freedom = Unrestricted Access to Information + No Monitoring of Use (MarcEPIC)
Payment of processing (author) fees to publishers of journals and monographs
How could the proposed Google Books settlement change the landscape for alternative projects like the Internet Archive? How should such projects adapt so as to remain a viable alternative? "
Post-deadline Submissions
How can we ensure that digital libraries maintain the same privacy protections that non-digital libraries have worked hard to build and preserve?
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/googlebooks/Main_Page
"Scope and Goals
The proposed Google Book Search settlement creates the opportunity for unprecedented access by the public, scholars, libraries and others to a digital library containing millions of books assembled by major research libraries. But the settlement is controversial, in large part because this access is limited in major ways: instead of being truly open, this new digital library will be controlled by a single company, Google, and a newly created Book Rights Registry consisting of representatives of authors and publishers; it will include millions of so-called “orphan works” that cannot legally be included in any competing digitization and access effort, and it will be available to readers only in the United States. It need not have been this way.
This workshop seeks to bring a fresh, unique perspective to a complex and widely debated topic. It will focus not on the specific merits and demerits of the settlement itself, or the particular antitrust and privacy and other objections that have been raised. Instead, it will examine the idea of possible alternative universes and offer specific proposals for scenarios that may arise whether or not the settlement is approved. What can libraries, or universities, or non-profits, or Congress, do in the current landscape? And how might these possibilities help us to define a better world than the one that we have today and, more importantly, than the one that will exist if the Google settlement is approved in its current form? Regardless of what happens with respect to the Settlement, what alternative possibilities could lead to a richer, more open and better information ecosystem than the one we have today or might have tomorrow with the Settlement?
By exploring these alternatives, this workshop seeks, in the end, to help inform the debate over the Settlement and its terms and to illuminate some of the key policy considerations that are at stake. Its ultimate goal is to develop a series of options and proposals that could improve on the status quo in novel ways.
Proposed Topics
Here are some tentative topics for beginning discussion at the workshop. We welcome feedback on these suggestions and encourage you to contribute your own proposals. We'll choose several of the topics to be incorporated into our agenda...
What might truly open access to orphan works look like
What might a truly “open” digital collection created by major libraries look like
What might a truly “open” global library look like
What would a truly “open” digital library look like
What might truly open access to and use of an online digital library look like
What might online, digital publishing and access look like going forward
Are all of these the same? Within the open environment what is closed?
Intellectual Freedom = Unrestricted Access to Information + No Monitoring of Use (MarcEPIC)
Payment of processing (author) fees to publishers of journals and monographs
How could the proposed Google Books settlement change the landscape for alternative projects like the Internet Archive? How should such projects adapt so as to remain a viable alternative? "
Post-deadline Submissions
How can we ensure that digital libraries maintain the same privacy protections that non-digital libraries have worked hard to build and preserve?
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/googlebooks/Main_Page
Friday, July 24, 2009
Legal advocates push for Google Books privacy; CNet News, 7/23/09
Elinor Mills via CNet News; Legal advocates push for Google Books privacy:
"Google should promise to protect the privacy of consumers with its Book Search service, the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Samuelson Law Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley Law said in a letter to the search giant on Thursday.
"Under its current design, Google Book Search keeps track of what books readers search for and browse, what books they read, and even what they 'write' down in the margins," the groups wrote in a letter (PDF) to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
"Given the long and troubling history of government and third-party efforts to compel libraries and booksellers to turn over records about readers, it is essential that Google Books incorporate strong privacy protections in both the architecture and policies of Google Book Search," the letter said. "Without these, Google Books could become a one-stop shop for government and civil-litigant fishing expeditions into the private lives of Americans.""
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10294519-93.html
"Google should promise to protect the privacy of consumers with its Book Search service, the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Samuelson Law Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley Law said in a letter to the search giant on Thursday.
"Under its current design, Google Book Search keeps track of what books readers search for and browse, what books they read, and even what they 'write' down in the margins," the groups wrote in a letter (PDF) to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
"Given the long and troubling history of government and third-party efforts to compel libraries and booksellers to turn over records about readers, it is essential that Google Books incorporate strong privacy protections in both the architecture and policies of Google Book Search," the letter said. "Without these, Google Books could become a one-stop shop for government and civil-litigant fishing expeditions into the private lives of Americans.""
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10294519-93.html
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