Google book settlement -- DENIED

[Garson O'Toole]

There are works in the Google Books database that were published
before 1923, I think, that are only shown in snippet view. Here is an
example of a volume with valuable information about Oscar Wilde that
was published in 1916 or 1915 according to WorldCat; however, it is
not fully accessible in Google Books:

[ROCS] 1916, The Real Oscar Wilde: To be used as a Supplement to, and
in Illustration of “The Life of Oscar Wilde” by Robert Harborough
Sherard, T. Werner Laurie, Ltd., London.

Google Books has multiple instances of this work and most have been
placed in the worst access mode: No Preview. There is at least one
copy of the book that is viewable in snippet mode:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-yk3AAAAIAAJ&

Luckily, a copy of the same work is fully accessible via HathiTrust.
Thus, the two organizations appear to have different policies
regarding the enforcement of copyright restrictions:

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3575586

I've encountered similar situations on several occasions. Years ago
Ben Zimmer pointed out the advisability of checking HathiTrust
whenever Google Books blocks access to a volume that appears to be in
the public domain.

Garson


On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Google book settlement -- DENIED
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have seen books previously in the public domain become unavailable when a
> reprint is issued, and then come back again.
>
> DanG
>
> On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 4:26 PM, Ken Hirsch <kenhirsch at ftml.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Ken Hirsch <kenhirsch at FTML.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Google book settlement -- DENIED
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Ken Hirsch <kenhirsch at ftml.net> wrote:
>> > > Works published before 1923 are in the public domain.
>> >
>> > Apparently, this is fact is of consequence only in the case of works
>> > *that have not been reprinted since then*, even in those cases in
>> > which the reprint is now out of print, too. Indeed, the stricture
>> > preventing Google Books from providing so much as a snippet holds even
>> > when the reprint has been merely "forthcoming" for over a decade and a
>> > half.
>> >
>> > --
>> > -Wilson
>> >
>>
>> That's not my understanding. I believe that everything published in the
>> U.S=
>> .
>> before 1923 is definitely in the public domain and Google can do what they
>> want with it. Essentially everything published outside the U.S. before 1923
>> is in the public domain here and, mostly, elsewhere.
>>
>> There were provisions in the proposed settlement about classifying books as
>> in-print/out-of-print and that did include reprints, but this determination
>> did not apply to public domain works.  For example:
>>
>> "(1) In-Copyright Principal Work.
>>
>> If a Book=92s Principal Work is not in the public domain under the
>> Copyrigh=
>> t
>> Act in the United States and that Book is Commercially Available, then any
>> other Book that has the same Principal Work (such as a previous edition) is
>> also deemed to be Commercially Available, whether or not such other Book is
>> at the time in question also Commercially Available."
>>
>>
>> There are certainly 19th-century books available freely on Google Books
>> today that also have reprints available.
>>
>> Ken
>>
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>>
>
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