Google Print FAQ
As a new author (well, soon to be, when it’s published), I’ve been spending time on all things authorly, dreaming of ways to get our book on Oprah and topics current to authors. I’ve noticed the Google Print debate and the Author’s Guild lawsuit. What surprised me, as reported by Preston Galla, is that Google blogged that they don’t “show even a single page to users who find copyrighted books through this program.” Well, they do. I just read through chapter one of Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman.
Google’s fair user argument will be decided by lawyers and the copyright for DWWS is well expressed on the Google Print pages, as well as links to buy it. The program will certainly allow users to find and buy their books more easily, Amazon’s look inside feature does the same thing. The problem with Google’s plan, as discussed in Dave’s post on AdSense, is what if you have a problem? What if you want your book excluded or the wrong links are on the page, or whatever? Do you get a call center or a mailto that takes 6 months to respond? A FAQ isn’t enough.
Update
Search and Rescue op-ed by Tim O’Reilly
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Yes, but that book is part of Google Print Publisher Program.
http://print.google.com/googleprint/publisher.html
“Provided by New Riders through the Google Print Publisher Program - Read the book on Safari!”
That’s correct. New Riders submitted it. For fair use, when Google is copying an entire library that’s another matter, which I think is what the Author’s Guild is suing over.
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