Next week, at 7pm on Thursday, November 17, Wired Magazine is hosting a forum at the New York Public Library on the controvery surrounding the Google Print Library Project.
Roundtable participants include the AAP's Allan Adler; Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson; David Drummond of Google; Paul LeClerc & David Ferriero of the NYPL; Lawrence Lessig; and The Authors Guild's Nick Taylor.
Snip from description:
Last December, Google launched its Print Library Project to scan books from the collections of several major libraries: Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library.Google explained: "Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers find new readers."
Sounds like a win-win-win-win for readers, authors, publishers, and libraries alike, right? But as we have seen with other media migrating to the Internet, such a project raises a number of questions about intellectual property rights, fair use, piracy, access, ownership, distribution, compensation, and control. This fall, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed lawsuits against Google, citing massive copyright infringement.
The NYPL and WIRED Magazine present a provocative discussion about the competing interests and issues raised by the Google Print Library Project, and whether a universal digital repository of our collective knowledge is in our future.
Link to details, tickets go on sale tomorrow (Wednesday). (Thanks, Melanie Cornwell!)
