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Sprang, Christian --- "Problem or Solution? Mass Digitisation of Library Stocks and the Google Book Settlement" [2010] ELECD 515; in Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul (eds), "Global Copyright" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Global Copyright

Editor(s): Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447660

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: Problem or Solution? Mass Digitisation of Library Stocks and the Google Book Settlement

Author(s): Sprang, Christian

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

20. Problem or solution? Mass
digitisation of library stocks and
the Google Book Settlement
Christian Sprang*

1 INTRODUCTION

Opening up complete library stocks for online uses is one of the great-
est challenges presented to the book industry by the nascent twenty-first
century ­ not only from a technical viewpoint, but from a legal viewpoint
as well. There is hardly a better time for the ALAI to deal with this issue
than a few months before the decision of the District Court in New York
on a final approval of the Google Book Settlement.
In this contribution, I would like to investigate the question of whether
it is recommendable, from the viewpoint of Copyright Law, to expand
the concept of mass digitisation and online inclusion of books developed
by the parties to the Google Book Settlement, which is currently limited
to the United States, to the rest of the world. In this discussion, I will be
addressing the following aspects:


Does it make sense, when digitising books protected by copyright,
to distinguish according to whether the books are commercially
available or not?
Should the author of an out-of-print book be entitled to copyright
as an exclusive right (opt-in solution), or is it sufficient if the owner
of the copyright can prevent the digitisation of the out-of-print book
(opt-out solution)?
Is the solution for the online embedment of `orphan books' offered
by Google appropriate from an objective standpoint?



* Dr Christian Sprang, Justiziar/Senior Legal Counsel, ...