CoCo: Publishers Ask Google Library Project Moratorium

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has sent Google an unpublished letter in which it asks to stop scanning copyrighted books for six months till concerns over copyrights are cleared. R. Adler, vice president of legal and governmental affairs of AAP

[S]aid the letter was sent because members of the publishers' association feel they have not "gotten satisfactory answers to their questions about copyright infringement." Many publishers say that Google does not have the right even to scan a copyrighted book -- they argue that making a digital copy of a volume for any commercial purpose requires the permission of the copyright holder.

Google is scanning the libraries of several universities, of which Harvard and Stanford have allowed copyrighted books to be included in the process. Google has not yet answered to the requests, but thinks that their "program is fully consistent with fair use under copyright law." Six months sounds like a short term to get "satisfactory answers". Might this be the prelude to a fine-tuning lawsuit over Google's Library Project?

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