= [Overview]
The beta version of Google Print went live in May 2005. In
October 2004, Google launched the first part of Google Print as
a project aimed at publishers, for internet users to be able to
see excerpts from their books and order them online. In
December 2004, Google launched the second part of Google Print
as a project intended for libraries, to build up a world
digital library by digitizing the collections of main partner
libraries. In August 2005, Google Print was stopped until
further notice because of lawsuits filed by associations of
authors and publishers for copyright infringement. The program
resumed in August 2006 under the new name of Google Books.
Google Books has offered books digitized in the participating
libraries (Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Oxford, California,
Virginia, Wisconsin-Madison, Complutense of Madrid and New York
Public Library), with either the full text for public domain
books or excerpts for copyrighted books. Google settled a
lawsuit with associations of authors and publishers in October
2008, with an agreement to be signed in 2009.
= Google Print
In October 2004, Google launched the first part of Google Print
as a project aimed at publishers, for internet users to be able
to see excerpts from their books and order them online. In
December 2004, Google launched the second part of Google Print
as a project intended for libraries, to build up a digital
library of 15 million books by digitizing the collections of
main partner libraries, beginning with the universities of
Michigan (7 million books), Harvard, Stanford and Oxford, and
the New York Public Library. The planned cost in 2004 was an
average of US $10 per book, and a total budget of $150 to $200
million for ten years. The beta version of Google Print went
live in May 2005. In August 2005, Google Print was stopped
until further notice because of lawsuits filed by associations
of authors and publishers for copyright infringement.
= Google Books
The program resumed in August 2006 under the new name of Google
Books. Google Books has offered excerpts from books digitized
by Google in the participating libraries - that now included
Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, Oxford, California, Virginia,
Wisconsin-Madison, Complutense of Madrid and New York Public
Library. Google Books provided the full text for public domain
books and excerpts for copyrighted books. According to some
media buzz, Google was scanning 3,000 books a day.
The inclusion of copyrighted works in Google Books was widely
criticized by authors and publishers worldwide. In the U.S.,
lawsuits were filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of
American Publishers (AAP) for alleged copyright infringement.
The assumption was that the full scanning and digitizing of
copyrighted books infringed copyright laws, even if only
snippets were made freely available. Google replied this was
"fair use", referring to short excerpts from copyrighted books
that could be lawfully quoted in another book or website, as
long as the source (author, title, publisher) was mentioned.
After three years of conflict, Google reached a settlement with
the associations of authors and publishers in October 2008,
with an agreement to be signed in 2009.
As of December 2008, Google had 24 library partners, including
a Swiss one (University Library of Lausanne), a French one
(Lyon Municipal Library), a Belgian one (Ghent University
Library), a German one (Bavarian State Library), two Spanish
ones (National Library of Catalonia and University Complutense
of Madrid) and a Japanese one (Keio University Library). The
U.S. partner libraries were, by alphabetical order: Columbia
University, Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC),
Cornell University Library, Harvard University, New York Public
Library, Oxford University, Princeton University, Stanford
University, University of California, University of Michigan,
University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia and
University of Wisconsin-Madison.