RE: NYTimes.com Article: The Coming Search Wars

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> On the one hand, the collection is in the public domain and it is being
> supported by a research university.  On the other hand, we're told that
> the collection "would be available exclusively via Google". If copyright
> has expired, and if the works are in the public domain, then how can
> Google claim any sort of "exclusive" right?

I think that in this context, the word "exclusive" would not mean the same
thing it means in copyright law.  I understand it to mean that Google
would be the only search engine through which one could gain online access
to the full content of the digitized books.  ("Exclusive" = "Via Google,
not Microsoft.")  But since neither Google nor Stanford owns the copyright
to these books, there would (I imagine) be nothing to stop others from
downloading the books in their entirety and making them available
elsewhere.

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
University of Nevada, Reno Libraries
(775) 784-6500 x273
rickand@unr.edu