I’ve been preoccupied of late, so the conference mentioned in the Karlin Lillington article in the Irish Times passed under my radar.
UNDER A recent court settlement, Google now has rights to the content of published or out of print works by Irish authors. It will be able to display significant parts of any book for free on the web, sell access to that content, or place online advertisements next to book extracts. – Karlin Lillington.
This has extraordinary implications, both for authors and publishers. To think that a court ruling in the United States can have such an effect world-wide is truly astonishing. A few web-savvy authors like myself saw it coming, but it’s a bit like global warming – even I’m taken aback that it has happened so fast.
Patrick Chapman and myself tried to pre-empt it somewhat with regard to out-of-print books by founding The Irish Literary Revival a few years back – but we’re no match for the mighty Google.
So long discussions are required to make the most of a a fait accompli. The real implications, apart from a loss of autonomy, if we ever had it once a book contract is signed, are for the future of electronic books. My guess is that Google is set to outflank Amazon on that one, especially if they use open standards.
PLR Ireland note: This very welcome site was painfully slow to load when I accessed it (March 29) and the Application pack for new applicants page brought up a 404 not found. I’ve notified plr.ie and no doubt others have too, so hopefully it should be resolved soon.
Copyright – let the authors beware, Karlin Lillington, The Irish Times, Friday, March 27, 2009
update: Google’s digital library could make it the mind of GodCULTURE SHOCK: Nobody should have the kind of power over the written word that Google has acquired thanks to one small court case in the US, writes FINTAN O’TOOLE
techno-culture, Karlin Lillington’s blog
The Fabulists free download under a Creative Commons Licence
