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["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Yahoo makes bid for libraries online
Alliance backed by Internet giant plans copyright-sensitive ’Net library

SAN FRANCISCO - Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. is setting out to build a 
vast online library of copyrighted books that pleases publishers — 
something rival Google Inc. hasn’t been able to achieve.

The Open Content Alliance, a project that Yahoo is backing with several 
other partners, plans to provide digital versions of books, academic 
papers, video and audio. Much of the material will consist of 
copyrighted material voluntarily submitted by publishers and authors, 
said David Mandelbrot, Yahoo’s vice president of search content.

Other participants in the alliance announced Monday include Adobe 
Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., the Internet Archive, O’Reilly Media 
Inc., the University of California and the University of Toronto.
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Although Yahoo will power the search engine located at 
www.opencontentalliance.org, all the content will be made available so 
it can be indexed by all the other major search engines, including Google’s.

A mote in Google's eye
By joining the project, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo is hoping to 
upstage Google, which has a one-year head start on scanning and indexing 
books so more literature and academic research can be accessed from 
anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

“My feeling is we are doing something new here,” Mandelbrot said. “We 
are building a collaborative effort that will make a great deal of 
copyrighted material available in a way that’s acceptable to the 
creators. That is novel.”

The alliance won’t include any copyrighted material unless it receives 
the explicit permission of a publisher or author. That restriction means 
the alliance is bound to be missing much of the material available in 
brick-and-mortar libraries.

In an effort to be as comprehensive as possible, Google plans to index 
millions of copyrighted books from three major university libraries — 
Harvard, Stanford and Michigan — unless the copyright holder notifies 
the company by Nov. 1 about which volumes should be excluded from the 
search engine index.

Google’s “opt-out” provision has outraged many publishers, who contend 
the company is flouting long-established copyright laws. The Author’s 
Guild Inc., which represents about 8,000 writers, sued Google for 
copyright infringement last month. Google maintains its scanning 
represents “fair use” allowed under the law because it only allows Web 
surfers to view excerpts from copyrighted books.

Theories mount on Google's next moves

Yahoo plan called ‘encouraging’
Some of the most strident critics of Google’s library project are 
endorsing the Open Content Alliance, or OCA.

Patricia Schroeder, president for the Association of American 
Publishers, called described the alliance’s approach as “very encouraging.”

Sally Morris, chief executive for the Association of Learned and 
Professional Society Publishers, said she hopes Google follows the 
alliance’s example. “The OCA’s model of allowing rights holders to 
control which of their works are opened up...and where they are hosted 
may encourage others to do so.”

Google also applauded the Yahoo-backed alliance. “We welcome efforts to 
make information accessible to the world.”
© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.