Grumpy about Google

Inside Google Book Search is the corporate blog that highlights interesting stuff in Google's book programs. If you're American, that is. Think they're a global company? Think again.

Commence whinge

On 7-Sep-06, they posted about Hanging in Chains, saying it was one of many "out-of-copyright crime history books in Google Book Search". I followed the link but it wasn't free for me.

So on 8-Sep I filled in their feedback form at the bottom of the page:

Hi,

I followed the link on your blog to 'Hanging In Chains' and it is not available to me. Which is odd, because New Zealand's copyright law is a lot less draconian than the US and yet you are pushing this book as available and interesting in the US. What am I missing?

Thanks

Zac

The auto-reply came back immediately (typical for Google ) and a human replied a day after that on the first working day of the week (gratifyingly unprecedented feedback speed for Google!):

Hi Zac,

Thanks for your email. I understand that you were unable to download "Hanging in Chains." For users outside the U.S., we make determinations based on appropriate local laws. As with all of our decisions related to Google Book Search content, we're conservative in our reading of both copyright law and the known facts surrounding a particular book.

I appreciate your taking the time to offer us this feedback and encourage you to continue to let us know how we can improve Google Book Search. As this is still a young program, new features are under consideration and your feedback is very helpful.

Sincerely,

Dan

The Google Book Search Team

Which is nice, but wrong. It's just quoting their own corporate-speak. Reply on 9-Sep:

Thanks for your reply. But, and I mean to ask this in the politest way with oodles of admiration and so on, are you kidding?! The situation in copyright law is pretty unequivocal - there's not a lot to be interpretative or conservative about. NZ copyright extends 50 years past the end of the year in which the author died. Is any book in your database deemed to be in the public domain in NZ?

Other countries have longer terms but Hartshorne died in 1910 so his works are public domain absolutely everywhere that copyright law exists except Mexico and Cote d'Ivoire. If its public domain in the US, it's public domain in every other country in the OECD.

To reiterate, I don't want to be anything other than polite and respectful but your answer was, er, unexpectedly incomplete.

Thanks,

Zac

Silence for three days: not so unprecedented. Perhaps they're busy. Perhaps they're checking out if I'm making that up. Perhaps they're about to correct the problem…

Hello Zac,

Thanks for your reply. I understand your reaction to my initial email.

I have consulted the rest of our team, and it seems that PDF downloading is not fully available to international users. I appreciate your patience as we work to expand this newly released feature.

Sincerely,

Dan

The Google Book Search Team

Which is nice. Also unsatisfactory.

Thanks Dan. I appreciate you following that up.

Hope it rolls out global soon.

Best,

Zac

As of 3-Nov-06, the global rollout has yet to begin.

Here is the relevant Google Book Search Help Center entry (my emphasis):

How do you determine if a book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright?

Whether a book is in the public domain can be a complex legal determination. For users in the U.S., Google Book Search currently treats all books published after 1922 as protected by copyright, except for books to which no copyright was ever attached, such as books authored by the U.S. government. For users outside the U.S., we make determinations based on appropriate local laws. As with all of our decisions related to the Google Book Search content, we're conservative in our reading of both copyright law and the known facts surrounding a particular book. If we don't know for sure that a book is in the public domain, you'll see at most bibliographic information about the book and a few short snippets -sentences of your search term in context.

But who cares about some little country barely on the map that has copyright laws as yet unchanged by corporate lobbying since the fifties?

[Published: 03-Nov-06 | Permalink | Category: Writ]