Google and British Library together have decided to make online version of thousands of historic books in its library.
Both the parties entered into the deal which was announced today, Monday, 20th June, 2011. This deal would allow internet users read, search and copy 250,000 texts which were published in between 1700 and 1870. The deal applies on those books that are not covered by any copyright restrictions.
Google has struck similar deals earlier with other libraries around the world. Google plans to put millions of copyrighted material online which has hugely been opposed by publishing industry as a whole. It has also become a matter of legal battle in the US.
The British Library has a huge collection of books and periodicals. It has around 14 million books and close to 1 million periodicals. Last year, the Library announced its plans to digitize up to 40 million pages of newspapers that dates back to three and a half century.
Well, Google’s move to digitise the contents will no doubt benefit the users but, is the digitizing of copyrighted material justified by Google? What’s your take on that.