[pd-discuss] BL and google digitise books

Tue Jun 21 11:11:40 UTC 2011

not sure if this is a worthy battle. obviously this is a situation which is far from optimal (but not special: this seems to be similar to the deals google has with all other participating libraries in europe) but the question is if it is realistic to expect that a campaign could change this. 

Google is not doing anything that is wrong per-se (this is public domain material so they can do whatever they want with it, that is if you want the beauty of it). 
With regards to the BL there might be more of an issue since they are a publicly funded organization that should be more accountable to principles like open and equal access. however, i think in in times where public money for digitization seems to be on the retreat and these PPPs become one of the only ways to get large amounts of material online i do not think that a campaign has the potential to result in anything productive. 

The core of the issue comes down to the simple question do we want a proper public digital infrastructure (that would require public funding) or are we willing to live with the trade-offs that result from these PPPs. If we really want to push for the public scenario then that means that we also need to push for the funding required to get this implemented.... /paul 

On 21 Jun 2011, at 10:57, Jonathan Gray wrote:

> Javier: I would definitely ask Paul Keller (in cc) and other folks at
> Communia for their opinion on the value of this. They know the sector,
> and the probable/possible impact of campaigns in this area, much
> better than I do!
> 
> J.
> 
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Javier Ruiz
> <javier at openrightsgroup.org> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> Unfortunately even after the calculation is done and material is PD,
>>> it is not clear that digital copies will be open as in
>>> opendefinition.org (and hence free for anyone to use without
>>> restriction).
>>> 
>>> E.g. I understand the material from BL is unfortunately still rights
>>> encumbered [1], possibly due to contractual obligations (with
>>> Google?).
>> 
>> 
>> Would the access conditions here be a worthy battle?
>> Open Rights Groups is meant to campaign on this sort of thing, but taking on
>> Google and BL would require a supportive effort from our wider networks,
>> even if other organisations do not have campaigning mandate.
>> Javier
>> 
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jonathan Gray
> 
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
> 
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