For those who enjoy the musty smell of a library, be prepared to get your fix elsewhere, because the latest craze is digital libraries, which offer books available free on the Internet. It all began when the Internet giant Google announced its plan to scan books from some of the nation’s greatest research institutions to create the world’s largest online library. And now, the European Union has jumped on the digital bandwagon with Europeana, the EU’s official online library. Launched as a response to the Google Book Search project, Europeana’s collection of 4.6 million digitized items is significantly smaller than Google’s collection, which currently holds over 10 million titles.
Unlike Google, which basically decided to scan books first and ask for permission later, Europeana currently does not scan copyrighted works.
Both Google Books and Europeana cite the dissemination of information and availability of material to the general public as a goal, but the two projects are otherwise very different. First, Europeana houses more than just literary works- it contains maps, photos, films, and audio clips. Second, Europeana is run by the European Union, as opposed to a private corporation like Google. Furthermore, Europeana contains material added from the EU Bookshop, which houses each publication ever edited on behalf of EU institutions, approximately 110,000 in all. But the most significant difference between the two models of digital libraries is their method of treating copyrighted material. Unlike Google, which basically decided to scan the books first and ask for permission later, Europeana currently does not include scanned copyrighted works.
Google provides access to books that are in the public domain for free, and for books that are protected by copyright, Google supplies users with a limited preview of the text. By doing so, Google has found itself squarely in the center of a copyright controversy. Google was sued in federal court by copyright owners who claimed that Google’s plan to scan books violated their copyright rights. Google reached a settlement with publishers and copyright owners, but the settlement is being revised after the United States Department of Justice claimed that the proposed $125 million settlement ran afoul of antitrust law. A deadline of November 9th has been issued for the parties to reach a new agreement.
In contrast, Europeana does not include copyrighted works in their library. Since experts estimate that most published works are still protected by copyright law, this policy will significantly limit Europeana’s collection, and fragmented copyright laws among the EU’s 27 member countries is making harmonization in a Pan-European library difficult. Unlike Google, Europeana is approaching the problem in a way that is deferential to the rights of copyright holders. Rather than scanning material first and then asking authors to opt out of inclusion, Europeana has issued a policy statement and is conducting a consultation, asking member states to help figure out what the best operating mode would be for its program.
By asking the questions first, the European approach is by its very nature more collaborative than the Google model. Agreements have already begun to form that may provide a model for a solution to Europeana’s copyright problems. The German site, Libreka, provides copyright protected works to users, but only after the publisher has received permission from the author to digitize the books. Another example is Gallica, the site of the national library of France, which provides free access to public domain material and supplies users with a link to copyright protected works. Partnerships like these, which allow copyright owners to decide whether and how much of their content they want displayed, could have advantages for all parties and lead to earlier implementation of fully functional digital libraries.
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