Google halts online books project
15 August 2005
Search giant Google has announced that it is putting the brakes on its ambitious plans to scan the text of millions of books and place them online.
The company said in a statement on the Google Blog that the decision to halt Google Print until November was a response to the concerns of publishers and authors.
Google is now asking publishers to “opt-out” of the Google Print programme over the next three months. The scheme aims to make literature and research material available to everyone via the internet.
Google Print will, when it is up and running, direct potential buyers to publisher websites and provide reports about user interest in specific books.
Google hopes to digitise the books in several major university libraries, making millions of volumes accessible.
It has spent $200 million (£110 million) into creating a digital archive of books from top US libraries Stanford, Michigan and Harvard and the New York Public Library by 2015. It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from Britain’s Oxford University.
Adam Smith, Google Print’s Product Manager said on the company website: “We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher program in order to introduce their work to countless readers around the world.
“But we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too.”
However, Google has come under fire from publishers for offering an opt-out of copyright violation, rather than an opt-in.
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