Intellectual Property Law

We?ve posted from time to time on the dispute between various publishers, authors and Google over Google?s ambitious Print Library project. After Google initially suspended the scanning of materials to give publishers an opportunity to opt-out, the project resumed last November, and Google just announced that the University of Wisconsin-Madison was joining the program. UW?s extensive library holdings exceed more than 7.2 million volumes, and add to major library holdings at the University of California and Spain?s Universidad Complutense de Madrid that also recently entered into agreements with Google for the scanning of library materials.

For those interested in the details, Google?s contracts with both its library partners at the University of Michigan and the University of California are available online for perusal. Under the contracts, Google delivers digital copies of the items each library has contributed back to the individual libraries, and the of Michigan recently launched Mbooks, integrating the digital works resulting from the University of Michigan/Google Digitization Partnership into its Mirlyn online library catalog.

Despite the seeming growth of the program, litigation continues, with the news that Google has issued subpoenas seeking a variety of information from Yahoo, Microsoft, and Amazon.com, among others. Stay tuned to the IP Blawg for the outcome of this one.

Today's Blogger: Nan Joesten