EU Says Europe Must Scan Books As Does Google
PC World, October 19, 2009
The European Commission is aggressively pushing the EU to approve a plan to digitize orphaned books. They are specifically interested in taking action before Google receives approval to scan orphaned books and publish them in an online repository. (Orphaned books are books protected by copyrights whose owners cannot be found.)
Under current laws, EU citizens would not have access to Google’s digitized orphaned books even when their online publication is approved by the United States’ government. Instead, Google will have to seek approval individually from the EU’s 27 member states.
The European Commission argues that creating a plan for handling the digitization of books would “boost Europe as a center of creativity and innovation”.
Additionally, some publishers have likened Google’s plan to digitize books as a “land grab”. And it is likely the EU is interested in competing with Google in this space. Especially given their current Europeana project, an effort to collect and publish European digital libraries. Europeana was established by the European Commission in 2005, and its website went live in 2008.
