Google, Random House move closer on book search
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- Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:23:10 -0400
The Washington Post, USA
Friday, October 12, 2007
Google, Random House move closer on book search
By Georgina Prodhan
Georgina Prodhan, European Technology Correspondent
Friday, October 12, 2007; 1:18 PM
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Random House, the world's biggest book publisher, is
considering joining a book-search project run by Google (GOOG.O), once
considered an arch-enemy by the paper publishing industry.
The two parties are talking to one another about the less controversial part of
Google's book-scanning project, its partner program, sources with knowledge of
the matter told Reuters at this week's Frankfurt Book Fair.
Google has agreements with more than 10,000 publishers, large and small, who
give their books to Google to be scanned in full. Google then makes them
partially available -- according to agreements with each publisher -- for
online readers. It also works with 27 academic and reference library partners
to gain access to out-of-print works. But part of the library project has
proved controversial and thrown Google into legal dispute with U.S. publishers
as Google also scans works from its U.S. library partners that are still in
copyright without asking the publishers first.
Random House, a unit of German media group Bertelsmann (BERT.UL), has until now
held out and not joined the publisher partner program, which can help boost
book sales, especially of publishers' so-called backlists of older titles.
When asked this week whether the parties were close to an agreement, a Random
House spokesman said: "Random House continues to have periodic constructive
conversations with Google on issues of mutual relevance."
Google declined to comment.
Random House, as a member of the American Association of Publishers, says it
continues to support a U.S. copyright case filed against Google in 2005 and
funded by the association. The lawsuit -- brought by Penguin, Pearson,
(PSON.L), McGraw-Hill (MHP.N), Wiley (JWa.N) and Simon & Schuster -- aims to
stop Google from scanning in-copyright works it gets from its library partners
without explicit permission from publishers. The Bookseller trade magazine
reported on Thursday that Random House was "close to healing its rift with
Google."
CULTURE MONOPOLY
Google has so far digitized the full texts of more than 1 million books. The
total number of books in the world is unknown but global library collective
WorldCat has more than 91 million bibliographic records in its database, the
biggest of its kind.
Google has come some way toward pacifying its critics since causing a furor
after it launched the project in 2004 amid fears, most vociferous in Europe,
that Google would gain something close to a monopoly of world culture.
Google now works with 27 libraries worldwide, up from seven a year ago, and its
book search is available in 11 languages Oxford University's Bodleian Library
and Japan's Keio University library.
The company, which does not charge or pay its publisher partners, gains depth
and authority for its Internet search engine by making not only Web pages but
also books searchable.
It has already integrated book results into its U.S. search engine and is
beginning to do so in Europe.
Google does include advertising on its partner program book-search pages, with
its publisher partners getting most of the advertising revenue. It has no
current plans to do so on its library search pages while it still improving
them, for example by including links to Google Maps to show where the action in
a book is taking place or adding braille layers for the visually impaired.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101201216.html
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