The Great Copyright Debate

In the world of international publishing content is king. Search engine giant Google is on a corporate mission to organise the world’s books and make them universally accessible. It is a utopian vision with countervailing public interests which include the right to privacy, security and ownership of property. Those who are against this development ask if one organisation should control the entire world’s information.

‘Google Book Search’ also involves deals for this content with major academic institutions. Millions of books, many still under copyright, are being digitally scanned for access by search engines generating huge potential revenue from advertising. Some are challenging Google’s copyright policies (established by in the courts in order to protect writers, photographers, composers). Google makes over $90bn profits per annum and is the only company that could attempt such an ambitious scheme.

The great library at Alexandria (built in 300 BC) was once designed to hold the entire world’s knowledge written on half a million scrolls. This represented 30-70 pc of the books then in existence. Google’s high tech scanning booths are creating a similar ‘Universal library’ one page at a time. Begun in December 2004 Google is scanning the contents of the world’s major research libraries. Existing technology makes this possible and is, in theory, a truly democratic idea. The goal is to have the entire work of humankind from the beginning of recorded history in all languages available to all people all the time.

The world’s biggest publishers create and sell such content for profit. As such Google’s project poses a threat to their ability to retain copyright and sell that content on. It was Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd who introduced the first Copyright Bill in 1837 and it has hardly changed since. Google Book search is not, however, seeking permission from copyright holders to ‘sample’ copyrighted works but it fully intends to sell advertising on the back of that content.

Currently there are 25,000 journals worldwide each of which publishes 40 articles per annum and one million new articles are produced each year with a rejection rate of nearly 50 pc. The numbers of scientists have increased by nearly three per cent per annum over the last 300 years and journal numbers by 3.5 per cent.

Web spiders are continually trawling the web searching for access to valuable metadata held online. Metadata on ownership and accessibility is embedded in new types of copyright devices called ‘Creative Commons Licenses’. Closely associated with these new licenses are so called ‘Addendum Engines’ which increase the rights of the author to reuse their work.

Self-publishing has expanded exponentially to 200,000 titles in 2005, an increase of over 25 pc on 2004. We now live in an age where agents and marketing specialists are no longer needed to sell the product of one’s talent. Anyone can publish online. There is no cost to upload a book and specialised websites can print pages and sell them to their   customers on demand. In comparison traditional models of publishing are cumbersome and involve expensive literary agents. Digital technology has transformed the way we read books and is threatening our traditional views of copyright protection.