The Digital Public Library

Umm has anyone heard of “copyright?” Seems to me that copyright is the monkey wrench that impedes the whole “Digital Public Library” movement. Seems obvious, but apparently not to some. The proponents optimism that copyright restrictions can be overcome without paying anyone anything is the most puzzling. A Federal Court said just that when it ruled against Google’s project to digitize books. In essence the ruling said no to a previous settlement between publishers and Google that allowed Google to set up a “Universal Digital Library and bookstore. The court said that the previous ruling turned copyright law on its head by giving Google the default right to profit on a book unless a publisher or author objected. And this brought to the fore the problem of “orphaned books,” out of print titles whose authors or publishers that can be not easily found. Since no one else could obtain rights for these books it would give Google a monopoly on millions of titles. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against a universal digital library, but I think all attempts at such a library are going to face the same copyright problem.__there’s just to many interested parties and conflicting financial interests involved. In the meantime backers are lobbying Congress to make it easier to digitize orphan books. But how can US Law affect foreign publishers titles? Still others remain optimistic seeing the ruling against Google as an opportunity to create a new model called the “Digital Public Library of American,” that has backers such as, the Library of Congress, the National Archives and major universities. However this plan as yet remains in infancy. So far six works groups have been created to solve all the legal and financial issues. But this project seems to me to bring even more disparate and competing interests to the table. Is all the trouble and hassle worth it? I think yes. Just think of its potential. It’s enough to make any librarian glaze over.