The Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation and the Federation of Indian Publishers, alongside 15 Indian authors and publishers, have filed objections against the Google Book Settlement with a New York District Court. They join a list of Australian, Canadian, Chinese, British, French and German?not to mention American?entities that have already taken issue with the audacious Google project to scan as many of the world?s books as possible to create a universal online library. The ongoing conflict is a classic case of how new technologies have been challenging regulatory frontiers that appeared brand new and up to date just the other day. After all, intellectual property issues didn?t really gain global traction till the last part of the twentieth century, at which point they exploded all across a host of commerce verticals ranging from pharmaceutical to artistic works. In 2004, when Google announced its plans for scanning books, quite a few commentators let out gleeful yells, anticipating how tomes languishing in obscurity would suddenly see light on the Internet. We hadn?t heard of orphan authors then. But they have gained ground since then, and the key question has become whether it?s fair for Google to make profits off books whose authors cannot be found or whose rights holders are unknown, while the books themselves are in copyright. Does its first-mover advantage in online book indexing and retrieval have monopoly implications?
In language that?s being echoed on different national shores, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declaimed, ?We are not going to be stripped off what generations and generations have produced in the French language, just because we weren?t capable of funding our own digitisation project.? German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced similar concerns. Meanwhile, Google has reportedly digitised some 10 million books?mostly ?public domain? orphan works?already. Muddying the entire debate are affected corporate giants like Microsoft and Amazon, which have been lobbying hard with the justice authorities in the US as well as Europe. On the other side, the likes of Sony have heralded how Google is giving students, scholars and researchers access to material that they couldn?t obtain otherwise. Forget India, even richer nations like France and Germany haven?t been able to give Google a true run for its money when it comes to digitising native texts. As the Apple iPad buzz indicates, consumers around the world will be switching to consuming content in digital form. So, the Google Book Settlement really matters. What the Indian protests demonstrate is that the precise contours of such a settlement?who will pay what for which service and how content authors will be compensated?still remains to be worked out.
