Yahoo Wants in on the Digital Library

Posted on October 3, 2005

Not to be outdone by rival Google's plan to digitize every book every published without the permission of the authors or the publishers, Yahoo wants in on the action. Worried about all the lawsuits from furious authors and publishers, Yahoo is starting with books that are out of copyright and in the public domain. As for the other books, Yahoo says it will actually ask permission to use the content. But Yahoo will not provide just excerpts of the books: the entire content of the books will be available online via all search engines.

In a departure from Google's approach, the Open Content Alliance will also make the books accessible to any search engine, including Google's. (Under Google's program, a digitized book would show up only through a Google search.) And by focusing at first on works that are in the public domain - such as thousands of volumes of early American fiction - the group is sidestepping the tricky question of copyright violation.

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When it comes to copyrighted materials, the newly formed group appears to be taking a more cautious approach by seeking permission from copyright holders and by making works available though a Creative Commons license, whereby the copyright holder stipulates how a work can be used.

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Richard Terdiman, a professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the Creative Commons approach appeared less likely to antagonize copyright holders. "Until the Supreme Court decides what is fair use and is the Google model acceptable, they won't have to spend three-quarters of their time fighting lawsuits."

It's interesting to note that neither plan is going to pay one dime to copyright holders.

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